


May We Meet Again

by Veridissima



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, Multi, ao3 is acting out on tagging the ships, so the kabby and kallie tags are minor, the threesome will be major in the future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2019-10-22 23:07:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 54,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17671868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veridissima/pseuds/Veridissima
Summary: Callie Cartwig survived past the first episode of The 100 in here, now discover how she made it during the following five seasons.





	1. Season 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone!! If you follow me in any platform, you will know how excited I am to put this out there, so it's finally here my "Callie survived!!" fic, and just to introduce it a bit, each chapter will be a season and I won't be rewriting the entire season, of course, but choosing certain key moments where I felt Callie would fit in well :)
> 
> Shipping wise, I decided to already tag all the ships, there's always debate about how to do that... I admit that here I did this, just so it wouldn't only be on the Abby/Callie tag, that I'm sure not many people check, but let me be honest while the other ships will happen, Abby and Callie are the core ship in this fic!!
> 
> As a disclaimer, I don't own these characters or the show. And I also apologize for any typos and mistakes, since English is not my first language :)
> 
> Finally, this fic goes out to everyone who's heard me talk way too much about Callie, either it be on social media or the comments of your own fics :) It goes out to the KTC girls, especially Alison who talked me through this idea when I first had it (some things changed since then, other stayed the same :) ), to Jamie and Em who helped me figure out some other stuff out, and to Noemi who always helps me, not matter what!! :D
> 
> I really hope this turned out okay, because this feels special to me :)

Callie had not seen him since she had started working at the Tesla Station, and she didn’t want to see him. Their break-up this time was the worst one yet, he had almost killed Abby after all, that it was not a stupid fight, that was him stepping on her heart and breaking it in a million pieces (and his own, not that he would ever admit it).

Her tablet rang again and seeing Marcus’ name flashing on it, she was going to pick it up to tell him that she was not interested, and then she read his message.

_Abby had a fight with Clarke on the radio. Go to her_

_Go see Abby_

That was something. She had heard about Councillor Kane’s meltdown at the memorial for the culling victims, that was all people were talking about. But he had taken the time to worry about Abby, this was always Marcus at his core – the side of him he had hidden from the world for years now. She sent him a quick _thank you_ and left to Alpha Station and Abby’s quarters.

Callie knocked on the door. And then knocked again. The door was only opened after four knocks and she found a tear-stained-face on Abby, who let her in without preamble, following Abby to what used to be her room – she didn’t even sleep there anymore, Callie knew she fell asleep on the couch most nights. Callie didn’t know how Abby could still live here with the ghosts of Clarke and Jake.

“Clarke knows I killed her father.”

“Abby…”

“I did. I killed Jake,” Abby argued, between cries, and Callie immediately stepped forward to take her in her arms.

“You didn’t,” Callie whispered, holding her close.

“I did… It’s like I pressed the button myself.”

“You didn’t, Abby. You thought you were helping him, you were protecting him.”

“I wasn’t, was I? He died, Callie. And then Clarke was taken from me and now she hates me,” Abby started crying harder on her shoulder. Callie held her a bit tighter and pulled them both down on the bed, letting Abby cuddle with her.

Callie let her fingers ran through the honey-colored hair, as the tears slowed down and sleep took over. Abby snuggled closer to her and Callie could only hold her as the silence filled the room, only Abby’s breathing could be heard… but Callie couldn’t fall asleep as quickly, she looked up at the ceiling – her mind wondering as her hands wondered over Abby’s hair and body, finally falling asleep, hours later, holding Abby to her chest and with her hands comforting under her shirt.

Abby woke up in the middle of the night in Callie’s arms, after the best sleep she had in so long. She felt good and comfortable and she couldn’t explain why she did it, but she kissed Callie’s lips.

Callie thought it was a dream. She answered the kiss immediately, her dreams were when she could give in to her desires, so she did. She opened her eyes to the beautiful image of Abby’s warm and brown eyes looking down at her, she pushed her fingers into her hair holding her face close to her.

She realized it wasn’t a dream, but it didn’t stop her. She accepted Abby’s lips and hands as they discharged of each other’s clothes, before Callie turned them so Abby was laying down.

“I’ve missed you, Abby, so much,” her mouth whispered more than once as she laid open mouthed kisses on Abby’s breasts. Touching a body she hadn’t touched in more than twenty years, noticing all the new scars and changes that had appeared – some she had seen before and had desired to kiss.

“Callie…” Abby moaned, with her body raising from bed and she tried to find some relief by rubbing herself against Callie’s leg.

“Shhh… darling… you’re in good hands…” she whispered, raising herself to lay a kiss on her lips, before turning her attention back to her breasts, and slowly moving her hand down, before touching her. Callie went slowly, tracing her folds, and barely touching her clit, until she slowly inserted a finger and Abby moaned, holding tighter to her hair.

“Go, slow, please,” Abby pleaded. And for a moment Callie almost stopped, guilt starting to creep in, but another moan from Abby distracted her and Callie continued moving her fingers and kissing her breasts. Before moving her mouth down, leaving butterfly kisses over her belly until she reached her goal. Callie went faster now, but learning that Abby reacted differently to things now, and before she knew it, Abby was holding tighter to her hair and coming.

She still sounded the same. The same she did in her dreams.

“Callie… that was…” Abby whispered as she came down from her orgasm and pulled her up from a kiss. They kissed again, Callie was just glad to be in her arms again, and she kissed her back. Abby rose herself on top of her again, as their mouths touched each other once again.

They kissed until they fell asleep. Just kissing, nothing else happened until they both fell asleep under the covers, with Abby fitting perfectly against her chest.

That’s how Callie woke up. Naked with Abby still around her, and as she brought herself into the awoke world, she was overwhelmed by guilt.

They shouldn’t have done that. Abby was hurt last night, crying and heartbroken, and Callie had taken advantage of her. She should have never acted on these feelings – she knew this was wrong.

She knew her dreams were wrong. They started about two months before Jake died, she started dreaming of Abby. She had always dreamed of Abby, of course, but it was memories from when they were young, or dreams of a world where Jake never existed. But now these dreams were too real, they came as a reality, as this new world without Jake – he had been her friend too. She shouldn’t do this to him…

Callie tried to leave the bed, slowly, not wanting to wake up.

“Hey…Where you’re going?” Abby mumbled, throwing her arm around Callie’s torso, trying to hold her down on the bed.

“I need to go,” she answered. She couldn’t stay here any longer. “I’m so sorry, Abby.”

“Why? Don’t leave… you don’t have work until later on.”

“I need to leave… I’m sorry I did this to you, Abby.”

“Wait… what?!” Abby asked, waking herself fully and sitting up, letting the blanket fall from her body. “What do you mean?”

“I’m so sorry, Abby… I shouldn’t have taken an advantage of you.”

“Wait, Callie, you didn’t…”

“I did. You didn’t know.”

“Callie,” Abby said, leaving the bed, and moving to stand in front of her, completely naked, as Callie had already pulled on her underwear and top. “I knew who I was kissing last night. I didn’t kiss because you were someone who was here. I kissed you, because you’re Callie Cartwig. My best friend, the person I trust with everything. Because you’re a beautiful woman,” she said, taking her hand to Callie’s cheek, “because you’re smart and funny and caring. And because you love me and I love you. And because I missed you and I wanted you,” she finished, before kissing Callie again, catching her by surprise. “Because I still want you,” she added.

Abby kissed her again, and this time she answered the kiss with passion, opening her mouth as Abby’s tongue asked for entrance. And letting Abby’s hand roam her torso as she pulled off her clothes and led her back to bed. Abby kissing her lips and then kissing down her body, and with her was different from before, Abby touched her with twenty years of new knowledge, no longer teen girls discovering each other bodies, but women who had experienced love, lust and heartbreak.

But more than that, Callie felt loved like she hadn’t in a long time

* * *

Unity Day was a special day. She remembered coming to see little Clarke and Wells train for their own performances – they had been adorable kids… she couldn’t believe Wells was gone now… She had been meaning to go and see Thelonious, but she wasn’t sure what she could tell him (and spending time with Abby had left her busy).

This celebration was something they all needed today. After Commander Shumway was arrested for trying to kill Thelonious, the Ark was buzzing, and Callie suspected it wasn’t over. Abby was sure his death hadn’t been suicide, but of course the Council had decided to keep that under wraps.

Callie’s thoughts were interrupted by Chancellor Jaha’s speech, she liked the idea that next year they would all be in the ground, even if she knew that she would miss Abby for a bit – she was going down soon. But Callie would never ask her to stay away from Clarke any longer.

Callie laughed at herself as she saw Diana approach Abby, and she must have noticed, because Abby smiled back at her. Abby and Diana had been competing since they were in middle school and both wanted to be class-president, and Callie still congratulated Abby for not killing Diana during those few months Callie had dated her in her mid-late twenties. Luckily Diana didn’t bother her for long.

Then the pageant started. A young girl told the story she had heard a million times and then the room exploded.

Callie had been on the periphery, but she still felt the hit, taking a few seconds to come to herself, and looking at the destruction around her. Familiar faces, bloody and almost dead, she felt relieve when she caught Abby standing and already helping, and then she noticed who she was looking at – Vera Kane.

Abby only needed a few moments with her, before catching Callie’s eyes and shaking her head. Vera was dying, at least Marcus was with her. Callie liked Vera – she was always so nice, she would sometimes smile sadly at her, like asking her why she and Marcus couldn’t just figure out things.

_“You’re such a good girl, I really wish my boy would make his mind about you,”_ she had told her a few times, with such a sweet voice that Callie almost believed her.

She wanted to go to Marcus, to offer some comfort, but someone else called for her. People needed her help, she moved around everyone, trying to calm the people she could find. She went back to Tesla after that, knowing those people would need to talk with her.

The day didn’t stop. The explosion started it, but everyone had lost someone – today, the culling or over the years. The dream of the ground got smaller during the day, electricity failing across other stations – Tesla was still holding.

Sinclair kept her up with everything, through the system, and as Farm started to fail, Callie oversaw them all getting in safely into Tesla territory. Callie had been going over the updates being sent to her when the ship trembled again, and this time Callie was out.

* * *

The air started filling in into the station, and Callie didn’t know if it was the air or the noise of everything working again, but Callie woke up, reaching and crawling for the entrance of air, feeling everything coming back to her.

Coming back to her senses, Callie stood up, and tried looking around, some people were still completely down, others were standing up like her. She helped those moving closer to the vents and then they moved to help the people still completely down.

“Callie, I don’t think she’s waking up,” she heard someone calling from across the room. It was an older woman on the floor, she didn’t know her name, probably one of the few people that had come from Farm, not all faces from there were familiar.

“Anyone with any medical training?” she called, as she kneeled next to the woman. “She has a pulse.”

“That’s good,” the woman who had called for her said.

“You’re Kara, right.”

“Yes, Kara Cooper from Farm.”

“Okay, nobody has medical training here. And Abby has not taught me enough, to the point I can handle this. I need to try and make a connection with someone outside, I need you to keep checking her pulse and if she’s breathing – hopefully it’s just taking her a bit longer to stand up.”

“Right.”

Just like that someone was following her and Callie found herself in charge of this room with more than thirty people in, and with the three exits blocked.

“Anyone who knows engineering or mechanics?” she asked. Only two people rose their hands, a woman in her mid-fifties, that had started in engineering before moving to study chemistry, and a young boy of fifteen who was just starting his training. “You two come with me.”

“Everyone else?” a man asked.

“If you’re okay, start moving a few things from the exits, the three of them. Don’t work fast or hard, we don’t know how much this air will lasts us and we don’t want to consume more than we should. If you’re tired or dizzy, stop, inform others. Okay?” Surrounded by nods, people got to work, and Callie retired to a corner with her tablet and the two other people.

“I’m Callie.”

“We know. I’m Leila.”

“Pat.”

“Okay. I want to try and patch communications with someone, we need to see who’s alive out there. And where it’s safe for us to move.”

“I don’t know how to do this,” the boy answered.

“Let’s just try, okay.”

They tried, but none of them were fully trained in this, and frustration kept winning them over. And Callie kept telling them to pause, it wasn’t good for their breathing as it got shallow with nerves, and she could feel the temperature rising in the room.

“Rest,” she said, “I’m going to check on everyone.”

She went to the older woman with Kara first, still no signs of waking up, and her breathing was getting weaker.

“She won’t make it,” Kara spoke. “Everyone is feeling the lack of air.” Almost no one was working anymore, just resting, trying to check their breath back in check.

“Any closer with the communication?”

“No, still drawing blank.”

“My husband is still out there. I think he was sent to Arrow when the power came down on Farm.”

“I know. I have people out there too.”

“Ms Cartwig!!” a group of three kids, none seemed older than ten called for her.

“You should go,” Kara said, “I’ll call you if anything changes.”

“Thank you. Keep me updated,” she said squeezing the woman’s shoulder.

“Ms Cartwig!!”

“Yes, kids.”

“We opened a hole in the wall.”

“We can see to the other side.”

Callie could see that. It was the only way out so far. It was a small hole, definitely not everyone would be able to pass through that small space.

“I can go,” the youngest girl offered. The hole was small but not that much. Callie was a small woman she could go through and get help.

“No, I can go. I’ll get help,” she decided.

“Pat, bring me the tablet,” she called out, before turning to everybody else. “So these brave heroes here,” she said looking at the children, two of them had run off to join some adults, their parents she suspected, the youngest didn’t – she wondered if her parents were also out there – and then continued speaking, “were able to open a door out of this room. It’s small, but I can go through and try to make a call out there, for help.”

“What if we’re alone?”

“We’re not. I would know if my husband was dead.”

“He’s right. We’re not. Someone turned on the air in this room. I just need to connect with Go-Sci.”

“And you’ll come back?”

“Yes, the moment I have news and we can all get out of here. In between don’t tire yourselves,” she asked, “but I still need someone to help me push across.”

It was this or nothing. So three men pushed her across the wall and Callie was alone in a single hall, and searched for something to make the connection – she found a panel, which seemed in a better state that the one inside the room. She tried to make the connection, but still no sign.

She tried a few more buttons and connections, and something worked – she heard a sound. It wasn’t a voice, but some clatter, and maybe she couldn’t talk, but considering she was from communications, she put on one of the codes (hopefully someone will understand).

She got a sign back. It said to wait, they were fixing it.

“Yes, who’s there?”

“Callie. It’s Callie Cartwig. I’m in Tesla, with around 34 people, still closed in the room.”

“Callie…”

“Marcus, yes, it’s me. You’re okay. Abby…”

“She’s safe too. Resting,” Marcus answered her, before continuing, “You can’t get from there to Go-Sci. Accesses are completely closed.”

“We’ve separated the Ark into groups as we figure out to do,” Thelonious spoke.

“I need to get everyone out of that room. We’re almost out of air.”

“Yes, that air is not good,” Sinclair spoke.

“We’re sending Pike to you.”

“Okay.”

“Leave this connection open is better than the one we have with Pike.”

“I will.”

Callie left that and made it back to the room, noticing that more people were now moving things out of the way, but with most of them tired there wasn’t much they could do.

“Help is on the way,” she told them, before noticing Kara out of her post and looked at her, asking the question and getting a shake of the head as response.

As they waited for help, they moved a few more people to her side, mostly children, and on this side they started working of freeing the clatter as well. Not close to enough had been moved, but she couldn’t be happier when she saw Charles walking in her direction.

“Callie. Sinclair said you guys needed help.”

“Thirty people stuck inside.”

“It paid off you being small,” he said with a laugh, before getting to work. A couple of hours and the hall was cleared, and the people inside had been given extra air.

“What now?”

“Every survivor is between Farm and Arrow, waiting for further instructions.”

“Okay. Sinclair said to connect with them using my system when we get there.”

They all walked to the group of people, trying to ignore the people who had died while waiting for help that came too late. Everyone was talking and waiting around for news and Callie moved up to make the connection and Sinclair confirmed it working. There was still no image, but the voice was much clearer.

“Chancellor will be wanting to speak with the survivors soon.”

“Okay, I’ll leave the line opened. How many survivors?”

“Less than 1000.” People around her heard that too and there were questions rising.

“Any names?”

“No… not yet. I don’t know…” he continued, “I’ll let you know it there are news.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll contact back in the next couple of hours so Chancellor Jaha can address your crowd.”

The call was ended at that, and nobody knew what to do was they waited, more than 200 people, almost close to 300, aimless, mostly just sat down and talked and mourned and tried to prepare for what’s next. But nothing could have prepared them for what was to come.

_51 hours. 51 hours to live._

That’s how much time Callie had left in her life, she almost wanted to give up already. She didn’t know what to feel – some people were mad, other resigned to their future, and a lot had gone away or paired up.

Callie could see Kara and her husband laughing across the room, and she felt a pain in her chest and she knew how she wanted to spend the rest of her life, but she couldn’t do it.

“Hey, you okay,” the lady who had helped with the communications back in Tesla asked her, “besides the all dying thing.”

“I just… I don’t know what to do.”

“Spend time with your loved ones.”

“She’s on the other side. My girlfriend is on the other side.” It was the first time she had used the word out loud, but she guessed that was what they were now.

“Ohh… you can spend the day with my wife and I.”

“There’s no need, but thank you,” she said, “Have a good night.”

“To you too.”

“So you and Abby…” she heard a voice whisper behind her and she looked up to see Charles coming her way and sitting next to her.

“Yes…”

“Finally. All of you had a crush on her,” he reminded her. “It was impossible to see all your puppy faces.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“You didn’t see it. It was you, Jake, Marcus, and I think even Thelonious, and even Diana was attracted to her.”

“Diana wanted to kill her.”

“Probably that too,” he said with a laugh. “Come on, I have a bottle of good tequila in my room that I’ve been saving for a special occasion.”

“That’s now?”

“No more rationing, so I guess I’m blowing through it tonight.”

“Someone needs to be here if they contact again.”

“Your loss…”

“What if you bring the drink here?”

“You know my room is way more comfortable.”

“Here you’ll have company.”

Charles came back moments after and sat down next to her, opening the bottle and offering her the first sip. They had never hang out much, he hadn’t really been part of their group back in the day, he had been friends and roommates with Marcus when they had been training for the guard, and that was how he was brought into the group. But he hadn’t been in the guard for even a year, before going back to the Farm and walking out of their lives as quickly as he had walked in.

But dying next to him and drunk was better than dying alone and sober.

So they drank and reminisced about a past when things had been simple and they were just figuring out what adulthood was. Memories of drinking after Abby passed a particularly complicated exam, of Marcus pushing him out of the bed because he snored to loud, or when Jake convinced them all to play football in the hall.

They only talked about that past, the happy one, not haunted by sadness. And they got through most of the bottle, but not all, falling asleep, her head on his shoulder, before reaching the bottom. They were woken up by another call that didn’t do any good for her headache, especially when what was asked of her was to take charge again.

They had a chance to live now – it was crazy, but a freaking chance. She and Charles got back to work with that, searching every room (luckily they had asked everyone to not move beyond Farm), they found people, but for some they were too late. Death was imminent and for some dying by their own hand was better than dying strangled without air.

They rounded out everybody else, explained everything and then the groups were made. This was the last connection before they went into the Stations, Sinclair had no way to push the coms all the way there.

“Our people are getting ready on this side. Are you all ready?” Thelonious asked them through the coms and Callie shared a look with the people around her.

“No,” they heard a voice speak, a woman who then turned to her husband, “We shouldn’t go together.”

“Hannah…”

“There’s a bigger chance one of us gets to Monty if we go in separate stations.”

“Okay,” the man agreed, waiting for someone to trade with him, and then they heard Marcus Kane’s voice.

“Callie, can you take his place?”

“Okay, I’ll be going with Farm then. Mr Green will take my place in Tesla.”

“Okay. Any other problems?” the Chancellor asked once again.

“No, sir.”

“I know this will be a hard trip down. And that we may not all make it down, but this is our chance to go home,” he spoke, before starting the Traveler’s Blessing, “In peace, may you leave this shore. In love, may you find the next. Safe passage on your travels, until our final journey to the ground. May we meet again."

“May we meet again,” was echoed in the room and through the coms, and Callie could swear she heard Abby’s sweet voice. She would see her soon – one way or another. (Or she would only see Jake and hopefully the man wouldn’t kill her).

After that there was no time. None of them could have problems setting into the stations – they had twenty minutes and they would launch and with this call off, they had no way to check if they all made it in.

“Okay, you know your groups. We need to move.”

Callie observed the goodbyes, friends and a few families that had decided to go down separately and then she walked to Farm, following Charles’ pace.

“We’re seeing the Ground,” he commented.

“We’re almost home,” she told him.

He entered first and Callie took the back, checking everyone who was supposed to go down in Farm was there with them. The seats weren’t the safest ones, but hopefully it would hold on. Then it was the waiting game…

One of the kids, Riley, she thought, held a clock and counted down. But time passed as they went over the agreed take off time.

“Don’t stress,” Charles spoke, “I’m sure they are handling it.”

“What if they don’t? They have no way to contact us.”

“They will. Just a few more moments.”

Callie closed her eyes and prayed for blast off. And then it did. The entire station trembled, and it shook more and more and Callie was sure she was going to die.

_Let Abby live. Let Abby find Clarke._

Her first prayer was out and then prayed for survival over and over again. As the station heated up and they all broke apart from the Ring and came down. Like she could had imagined the seatbelts didn’t hold that well and there were some people falling, Callie held down but then she passed out. At least she would die in her sleep.

That was her final thought before she woke up in the ground. Some people up before her, Kara was the first to notice her.

“You, okay, Callie?” she said, kneeling next to her and feeling her face. “You have a small bruise on your head, nothing special.”

“How’s everyone?”

“Pike is rounding up survivors – no dead so far. A lot of people aren’t up yet – my husband is still a sleep.”

“And outside?”

“We haven’t opened the hatch yet.”

“You want to see how it is,” Charles asked her, stopping next to her.

“Yes,” she answered, taking his hand and standing up. They walked through the station, followed by a few people, and then they pushed the door to open.

“Ladies first,” he offered. And Callie walked out, her feet touched something soft – all her life her feet had only walked on hard, steel floors – looking down she recognized it – it was snow. The floor was covered with a white carpet.

“Snow…” she whispered to him, before trembling and Charles throwing his jacket around her. “It’s really beautiful.”

“At least it’s not falling right now. It will be cold.”

“I know, but just take in the view for a bit,” she said. “We’re home,” she whispered, closing her eyes and throwing her head back, opening it to find a beautiful blue sky above them and clouds. And there were trees in the horizon too.

Callie was finally home. And she finally could see how vast the world could be. And she knew they had work to do. They had to take care of these people, to find the other Stations, to find the kids, to build a new society, but right now she only wanted to take the snow in her hand and see it melt, wishing Abby was there with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, in my head that little thing with Monty's dad, that's the change that makes this an AU, because I refuse to accept she was floated...
> 
> So I hope you enjoyed and I'll be back with more :)


	2. Season 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Callie and Farm Station have landed on Ice Nation territory, now get ready to read their experience

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So on Valentine's Day, I bring you the chapter with no Callie and Abby, and a lot of violence - we've heard the stories from Pike and Hannah Green...
> 
> Also if you know Riverdale, there's a easter egg here and it made it so much fun to write :)
> 
> I really hope you enjoy this one!! And let me know what you think :)

It took a few hours for everyone to wake up, which wasn’t bad since they were kept inside while another snow storm hit. They spent their first night on Earth inside, opened the first of their rations, and since there hadn’t been much on their side of the ship, they knew they would have to start hunting tomorrow or at least when the snow stopped, but for now they slept until morning.

Charles walked out first that next morning, Callie right behind him, and Earth still looked beautiful, all covered in white, with a blue sky half covered in clouds. And then they helped the others out of the station as well – Callie content to see the smile on the children’s faces, all happy to run off to play in the snow.

Charles had been the Earth Skills teacher, so he had theoretical knowledge about how to survive here, and he immediately chose a few people to go hunting with him. Callie had been moved inside the Station and was accounting for everything she could find in the station that could be useful.

She was in the middle of looking over some rooms in the back when she heard a loud sound from outside and ran to the entrance of the station, to find everyone trying to make it inside.

“What happened?”

“Weapons!!! We need weapons, Callie!! Weapons!!” Hal Cooper asked her.

“Pike took them all,” she answered. “What’s happening?”

“We’re being attacked.”

“My son is outside,” a woman cried from the back, as people tried to run outside and were held off. They let Callie pass to the door and she looked outside, she could still see people in the trees, but some were retreating, but the snow was red.

The children. The children who had been playing. The children were dead, nineteen, and then adults trying to make it inside shot in the back.

“Callie, you can’t go outside,” Hannah Green told her, resting a hand on her shoulder. “You will be killed.”

“Thirty people, Hannah.”

They waited the battle out, inside scared that they would be invaded. They didn’t. And when it ended, when all the bodies were out, Callie was the first to risk it outside, followed by Hal and Hannah.

“Check for breathing. Anyone breathing you call me.”

“We have no doctors, Callie.”

“I know. I know first-aid, so does Pike. Anyone else who knows first-aid come outside,” she ordered to the room.

Callie walked to the children first. They hadn’t only been hit by arrows, they had been carved and necks ripped, no one was breathing – nineteen children were dead. Dead under her care. Callie knelt down and closed their eyes and tried to cover the cuts the best way she could, she didn’t want the parents to see their bodies.

She could hear the parents. She would have to face them.

“Callie,” Hal Cooper asked.

“No child survived,” she said, shaking her head. “The others?”

“Two of the adults are still breathing. They’re being looked after inside.”

“One of the meds is the father of one of the kids,” Hannah pointed out.

“I’m not lying,” she said, cleaning her face. “Hal, can you start digging some graves? Call a few other strong people.”

“I will.”

“I’m going to talk to them.”

Callie went to each parent, she could recognize them as they looked at their hands, and searched for an answer on her eyes. Twelve times she pronounced the words “your child didn’t make it”, she held people in her arms and suffered punches, and another death took over.

Too much bleeding.

The other adult was stitched up.

“What now?”

“I want to say goodbye to my child.”

“I can take you, but… but… it was violent…”

“They made my child suffer…”

“We will have a funeral tonight.”

“What if they attack again?” Bryan, a small teen, asked.

“When Pike arrives, we will make our decision.”

“I would like to see my girl, Agatha.”

Callie walked the parents to the bodies, some stopped at the sight of the red snow, others dipped down to the bodies, bloodying their hands on their children’s broken bodies. Callie stood to the side trying to not cry, and stopping her mind from flashing Clarke and Wells’ young faces on those bodies.

The boy was dead now too. The sweet boy who shared every sweet he ever got and liked to just come to her office and look and touch the screens in communications. Like it wasn’t enough for Thelonious to lose his wife to one of the few sicknesses still uncurable, and now his son – she could only hope he would find peace on Earth.

“Callie,” Hal came behind her, calling for her attention. “The graves are ready.”

“Did you dig--"

“Hannah told me.”

“Okay. We will wait until they are back, for the funeral.”

“You think it’s safe.”

“It has to be,” she answered. “It’s night soon and we can’t leave then.”

“Do you think they are okay?”

“I’m sure Kara is okay, Hal,” she said resting a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah…” he told her, not convinced, before adding, “I’m going back inside.”

Callie waited with the parents and most just didn’t want to see the bodies again, and Callie started asking for help to take some of them to the graves. Most of them were ready when they heard the hunting team arriving.

Callie observed Hal running to pick up his wife. Others stopped and observed, noticing the blood on the ground. Callie moved to Charles immediately.

“What happened?”

“27 dead. 19 children,” she answered.

“We lost 2. Grounders.”

“Grounders,” she agreed.

“We need to move,” Charles said.

“I know, before they can surround us. Tomorrow morning,” she said. “We’re doing a funeral tonight.”

“We didn’t bring the bodies.”

“We will say a pray for them.”

They moved to the graves that had been digged a bit to the side, as he told her that at least they had gotten some food.

“We will be cleaning the Station tonight,” Charles said.

They had moved the last of the children to the graves and people gathered around. Callie tried not to think how dangerous it was for all of them to be on the outside, but all had to mourn and then it started.

People spoke for their child, and their neighbors, and they all said the travelling’s blessing, as they covered the graves back again. Luckily with the snow cleared it was easier.

But nothing covered the cries and yells of pain, not even the prayer said over and over again.

_In peace, may you leave this shore,_

_In love, may you find the next,_

_Safe passage on your travels,_

_Until our final journey to the ground._

_May we meet again._

* * *

They hadn’t stopped moving since they left Farm Station, walking through the snow every day, caring everything they could on their backs, leaving behind what they couldn’t carry.

Five more attacks, but only three losses – they had developed a defense strategy after the third attack. But there were still seven injured.

They spend their time moving, but they weren’t any closer to finding the other stations. They slept in tents most nights, and most nights they took shifts – one group slept, another took guard and the final one learned to make clothes. The century old clothes weren’t good enough anymore, the holes and ratted looks wouldn’t protect them for the cold, so they started to learn to use the skin of the dead animals, and took the clothes of their dead.

They were moving again. The plan was to cross the vale, made it out of this deeper snow, it had been falling for days now. But they made mistakes, of course, they did.

Biggest mistake was being over confident, thinking they had the high ground. Because the grounders lost and learned to evolve, and they were caught again.

Too many for Callie to count. They came from everywhere that late afternoon as the sky was almost dark, but it still wasn’t time to retire for the night.

They shot and they kidnapped.  Callie had been next to Charles who protected her, as she covered the children she could with their body – they couldn’t lose children again (they did).

Callie saw Bryan fighting a grounder and getting cut as they took the blond boy, Riley, away – they weren’t only killing this time, they were taking them, probably for torture.

Someone came close enough to Callie and she fought them with what she knew. She was quick on her feet and she was fast, but she wasn’t strong – she tucked her thumb inside her hand just like Jake taught her when she was sixteen and she almost got into a fight, but it didn’t work, she hit the guy in the torso and did no damage. She tried pulling a leg under him like Marcus had taught her, soon after Jake and Abby’s marriage and they were spending most of their nights together, and he was still excited about sharing stuff about his job in the guards – he didn’t move.

The man picked her up easily and threw her against a tree close by, and she felt a pain across her back. Her only relief was that the children had ran away when she told them too.

He was coming her away. Face half covered in masks and white paint, and she thought this was her end until a hole showed up on his head, with Hal holding a gun on his hand.

Callie stayed on the ground as the battle finished around her. It would have ended with all of them dead if the grounders hadn’t called for a retreat – none would know why, since they were winning.

She gave in after that, only waking up later on, to learn of 48 more casualties. Callie woke up looking up to Hal’s green eyes and blond hair as he held her.

“Kara…”

“I’m here,” the other Cooper spoke, from next to her husband. “Don’t speak, you’ve lost too much blood.”

She didn’t and fell asleep once again, next to Hal Cooper’s strong chest, listening to Charles giving orders.

When she came back to it again, she was with Charles, she could see they were in some kind of cave, and he was patiently waiting for her to wake up.

“Charles…”

“It was bad, Callie. We lost too many again, we need to change our plan.”

“They won’t make peace with us,” she admitted.

“No, they won’t.”

“Train us in fighting. You handle protection,” she said, “I’m handling everything else.”

“Callie… you were just thrown into a tree.”

“We can’t wait,” she said, getting up.

“Bryan, come help Ms Cartwig.”

“Thank you,” she said, taking the boy’s arm. “I hope I didn’t take you away from something important.”

“No, I was just talking with Iris. I can help.”

“Good. We need to do an inventory. I imagine things got left behind or stolen in the battle.”

“They did.”

The inventory proved they would have to hunt again and find some other way to warm up, because they sure didn’t have enough clothes. The teens couldn’t help but laugh as they offered other ways to keep warm.

“That’s for married couples. Now come help mend these clothes.”

“Does that mean Mrs Cooper can walk around naked?”

“Behave,” she warned them, but somehow smiled. The lightness was good for a bit, all trying to mask the constant death they all lived with now – so she let those children gossip as they did what they did.

* * *

For some reason, that they wouldn’t understand for months, things calmed down with the grounders – there was this constant buzzing about, but nobody attacked.

Something was happening with warriors moving but they weren’t stopped by them. So at some point they stopped moving, hiding in an abandoned building as a blizzard took over and they needed to make more clothes.

Some people were losing movement in their extremities by now, living in a room-controlled environment all their lives had made situations like this hard. Everyone had organized themselves around the multiple fires in the cave, trying to warm themselves during the cold.

“Why do you think they’re not attacking?” Charles asked her – he and Hannah had been questioning this for days now.

“I don’t know, but we should take advantage and move to safety.”

“There’s nowhere safe.”

“We should look for the other stations.”

“We don’t know if they are alive, Callie. I know you want--”

“This is not about me, we all want them alive. They are our people. There are people who had children and friends and partners in that first dropship.”

“I know, Callie. But these people are our priority now.”

“Callie,” Kara Cooper called out from where she stood at the building’s window, keeping guard.

“Yes,” she said coming closer, with Pike following her, and with Hal having ran ahead the moment his wife called.

“There’s smoke, sir,” Lacroix spoke to Charles.

“It’s barely visible with the blizzard, but it’s calming down and I’m sure something happened,” Kara told her.

“You think it could be Nate,” Bryan spoke, referring to his boyfriend, who had been one of the people to come down with Clarke and the other prisoners.

Callie actually knew Nate. His father had gone to school with her. And then Nate had also been friends with Harper and had spent a lot of time with McIntyres when he had been young.

“I don’t know, kid. But I think we should investigate,” she said, sharing a look with Charles, “I think we should head in to that direction.”

“We have no idea of what’s there,” Charles said, “We’re keeping with our plan.”

“What run and hide for the rest of our lives?”

“Kill the grounders.”

“That’s not viable.”

“We can’t do anything now,” Hannah spoke.

“No, we’re here for three more days,” Charles said before taking off. While Hal approached and offered her a seat to keep talking, close enough to his wife, but not enough to distract her.

“You think it could be them?”

“I believe it could, Hal,” she said, “They don’t seem to have explosions here, and our people would know how to make them.”

“They would. I won’t be much use, I was an English teacher in the Ark, but if you need Kara and I will stand with you.”

“We’re not fractioning. Charles and I will reach an agreement for what’s best for our people.”

“I hope so,” he said. “Do you think peace would be possible?”

“So far, no…” she said defeated. “But killing them all is also not a solution.”

“Time will tell,” he said before getting up, squeezing his wife’s shoulder and then heading back to the safety of the fires.

Callie waited a few more moments and then followed him inside as well.

* * *

The calm didn’t last long. And something had obviously changed. As the snow melt and the blizzard disappeared more grounders made it into the territory.

Charles wanted to attack as they came in, but luckily hunting took priority and he focused on that. But Callie looked at the people coming in, having moved away from camp, leaving Lacroix in charge.

“They look weak,” Hal whispered.

“A lot of them. They look like prisoners,” Kara spoke.

“Do you think the kids or other stations could have kept them prisoners?” Hal asked.

“I don’t know. It could be other grounders – they are not above killing each other.”

“Why don’t you go along with Pike’s plan?”

“Because it’s not a solution, Kara. We’ll just lose more people.”

“We should go back and report that we’re free this way.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” she said nodding and lifting herself from where she was hiding and picking up her gun again.

They walked all the way back to their provisory camp – it was hidden and with natural barriers (a river and a mountain). Their walks were finally easier, after more than a month, they were getting used to the terrain and her chest no longer hurt as much when they had to run.

They climbed the way to the small tunnel that lead to camp, with Hal giving her and his wife a push up, before raising himself up with their help. The cave was narrow, but they made it to the other side, finding everyone moving around and preparing the food the hunting party had brought.

“Nobody is coming in this direction, sir,” Hal informed Charles.

“Callie, I need to talk to you.”

“Kara, can you put my gun away,” she said, turning on the safety and giving it to the Cooper woman, before stepping away with Charles.

“What’s going on? Anyone injured? Dead?”

“Grounders – we killed five.”

“Were you attacked?”

Charles didn’t answer her and that was answer enough.

“I told you because I thought you would hear about it.”

“You can’t think this is okay, Charles. It was unprovoked.”

“I was just telling you about it, Callie, not asking for your opinion.”

He disappeared about that, and she didn’t know what to do of him now. But she kept her ears opened that night as they all took their bounty of the food to try and figure out how people stood on this dilemma. The camp wasn’t decided, but a lot still seemed to think it was wrong, but some of the teenagers were getting interested by the idea.

She couldn’t do anything about those, but she took the children away, now wanting them to hear about this violence and think it was okay. And it distracted her, to sit with them, even offering to take their tent that night.

Eight orphan children now. Some had come down like that – parents killed in the culling or Diana’s coup, and with everything happening then, there hadn’t been enough time for them to enter the system and be safely in Go-Sci – but others had lost their parents down here.

She laid down on the middle of the tent with the children, between the ages of four and eleven, around her asking for a story, knowing she was good at those. She told them the story of Robin Hood that night, some of them already knew it, others were surprised – that wasn’t a story told in the Ark. 

It was contraband and it was a real myth in the lower stations. Mara had been the one who told her the story, or at least she had heard the story as she told it to Harper. A story about robbing from the rich to give to the poor, it definitely had its appeal in a place like the Ark, but it was dangerous in a place where any robbery was punishable by death.

Here on the ground, things would be different, so she decided to tell the story she had loved from the moment she had heard it. And she wasn’t surprised when her dreams were filled with Abby in green tights and a bow and arrow. Robin Hood had always reminded her of Abby.

* * *

The grounders settled back in and the danger grew again for them. Attacks became more often, nine more people died in raids outside, but the camp was still safe. Until they came too close.

They didn’t get there, they didn’t find them, but walking close to the cave was enough to spook everyone and to make the decision to leave this safe haven they had found the last few weeks. Slowly they made their way out, early dawn, knowing there was a bigger chance for no one to see them.

The air was cold here, with no protection from the wind, but at least the snow had been gone for the last few days and Charles was sure wasn’t going to come back for bit longer.

“Where are we going?” Hannah asked her.

“The plan is to continue walking in the direction of the explosion,” she said. “We will find Monty, Hannah.”

“Kara, Lacroix, go in the front too,” Charles said coming her way. “I’ll take the back, Callie. Can you lead?”

“I will.”

“Can I go in the front too?” Hal asked.

“No more guns, Cooper. You can if you want, but take a knife.”

Hal joined his wife in the front, with six more harmed people, and Hannah moved to the back. While Callie had a child come to her to be picked up and she held the five-year-old, ignoring the back pain and started moving.

She still remembered where the explosion had come from. Always guided there, hopefully and some fairytale part of her believed that her heart was being called.

In front of her, they called back with signs of danger, and everyone knew to separate and take cover – even the children knew, each group in charge of a few.

They protected themselves like that multiple times.

Callie thought as she held two terrified children in her arms, holding her mouth over the youngest who just wanted to yell in fear. Keeping the three secure in a hole behind a few rocks.

“We’re going to be okay,” she whispered to their heads.

Sierra, the oldest one, wanted to jump off as Rickon argued against her hand. 

“It’s almost over,” Bryan whispered to the kids from in front her where he stood with Iris – that girl was a damn good hunter but she always panicked around grounders and she needed someone to hold her close – Bryan was the best at that.

Callie closed her eyes and pulled them closer hoping they would be free soon, and that her and the other seven members of their group.

“It’s clear,” they heard a voice yell loudly after a while, still long after they stopped hearing the grounders, and slowly everyone made it out of the hiding places. Or not everyone. One group didn’t make it back until later.

Two members. None of the children. They had all been hunted for sport and dragged away, but these made it out.

“Did they follow you?” Charles asked Smith.

“No. We were careful.”

“Good.”

And the walk started again. Both children kept close to her, but this time Bryan offered to carry Rickon, as he fell in pace with her, after Iris Jones went to join Smith. Sierra was on her other side holding tightly to her hand.

“You okay, Bryan?” she asked him. “Do you want me to take him?” It had been hours since the incident, he would be tired.

“No. Yes, I’m okay. I can take him – he has fallen asleep. I don’t know how anyone can sleep like this.”

“I wish I could,” she said. “Thanks for helping with him.”

“They are good kids. And even if they weren’t, it’s the right thing.”

“Thank you.”

“How far do we think we still are?”

“We’re not stopping until it’s dark and we find somewhere safe to rest.”

“I meant to be close to the explosion.”

“I don’t know, Bryan. We just have to keep walking.”

They did and it became easier with this terrain, without as many slopes, they made good time until they stopped for a quick rest and meal, taking advantage of the food they had prepared the night before in preparation for this trip.

Walking after lunch always relaxed people too much, with their belly almost full and the sun, that even if mostly covered by clouds, was still something none of them had gotten used to. So when they had heard the voices, they were almost caught by surprise, but there was still time for them to take cover again, quickly Callie led her group to some nearby bushes and hid behind, taking Rickon from Bryan, so he could calm down Iris’ panic attack.

She held close to the two children again, counting to ten with them. But luckily nothing happened this time, the group of grounders was only walking by, not looking for them, just riding and dealing with their own lives. Callie could hear them talking and laughing, and while she couldn’t understand them, this was the reason she couldn’t understand Charles’ wish to kill them all – these people were just living their life, moving through the world.

They all got out of their hiding places and continued walking. Nobody attacked for a while, and maybe it was that, and the remnants of lunch or the sun or the children and teenagers laughing, but easily they got into a sense of comfort.

They got to a large plane, almost no protection, which did raise their attention, it wasn’t enough. They wouldn’t know for months why that place was what it was, but from one moment they were surrounded – they heard the warnings but they could barely run back. And definitely not ahead.

They didn’t know. They didn’t know this battle wasn’t about them, that somehow their luck led them to the middle of battle between different clans. But of course, they didn’t stop to ask, and they shot down the grounders who came close and they joined the fight.

As their fighting men and women fought ahead, with Charles leading them, Callie made sure to get the children and everyone not fighting to safety, told them all to stay in a small cave she found. Of course, not everyone got there safely.

Two more children dead. And three women. And one man. Just to get to the cave.

Callie took the entrance and walked out to help anyone coming her way, especially since she was seeing her people were retreating.

“They are not coming after us,” Iris told her coming her way. “They are fighting each other.”

“So come here.”

“Pike wants to keep fighting.”

“I’m going out there.”

“You shouldn’t…”

“I need to, Iris.”

“Take my knife.”

“Thank you,” she said, accepting the weapon. And running close enough to the makeshift battlefield, enough to spot Charles.

“PIKE!!!” she yelled. “Call it off. They are not fighting you.”

“RETREAT,” she yelled after to everyone. Nobody seemed much shy about following her orders, at least the one who could get away did. Charles could have run back to, but he didn’t.

Callie left her place afraid someone would notice her and led her people to safety, asking the ones with guns to still stand guard by the cave. Callie waited a few more moments, before starting to make her way back.

And then she saw something.

Away from the battlefield a grounder stood with his sword trying to kill Bryan. And then everything happened too fast.

Callie was there. Iris’ knife on her hand. And then on his neck as he kneeled over Bryan. He turned on his side. And Iris’ knife was on his neck again. Blood bled out, his mouth tried to move, but nothing registered.

Nothing registered until it did. And she realized he was a kid. Younger than Bryan, probably no older than Sierra.

She killed him. She killed a child.

“We have to go,” Bryan told her, but the sentence made no sense in her mind. It really didn’t. Nothing did, not now, after she murdered a child.

Callie didn’t move. Callie didn’t cry. Callie stood there until Hal Cooper came their away and saw them there. He picked her up and carried her back to the cave.

The Ground had been changing her for weeks now, but this was the time everything truly changed. Death and murder changed everyone who touched Earth. Now it was time to learn to be someone else.


	3. Season 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Farm Station comes to Arkadia, and new conflicts arise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter goes out to Em, Jamie and Noemi, who helped figure out a particular plot point in this chapter - thank you for the help!!
> 
> And this chapter includes actual pieces of dialogue taken from the show, and as disclaimer, of course I do not own those dialogues/scenes, or these characters obviously.
> 
> This chapter still makes into Femslash February, which also makes me happy!!!
> 
> Really, enjoy the chapter!!!

The camp was well organized and today, Callie was in charge of gutting the small rabbit the Coopers had hunted, after months she was definitely better at this and definitely not squeamish with blood.

She also knew her function when they started hearing more noise from around camp, Callie ran to get the two children closer to her and went into the shelter.

“It’s just Lacroix,” they heard a voice call out soon after.

“Where’s Pike and the people who went with him?” Callie asked coming forward.

“We’re not alone,” he said. “We ran into Kane, they have a settlement close by. We gave us the coordinates.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, Callie,” he said. “Pike said for us to go.”

“There’s no other group out right?” she asked around.

“No, the Coopers’ group was the last one,” someone answered.

“Okay, everyone pack up now,” she started. “You know the drill only essentials.”

“What about the food?”

“All together. One of the horses will pull,” she said. “Kara, can you and Hal ride?”

“Yes. Where are we going?”

“They called it Arkadia,” Lacroix spoke up.

“At least one other station landed, they have a settlement,” Callie told Kara.

“There are more people there?” a child asked.

“Yes,” Callie said, picking him up. “Let’s go pack up your things.” Callie prayed that Alpha had landed – she knew his mom was there. Part of her was still afraid to think what it meant that Mecha had landed.

Callie helped him pack and then she packed hers, and before they knew it everyone was packed and they were all moving. They moved in groups, it was always safer like that – guards at the front and back. It would be a long journey, everyone afraid of stepping where they shouldn’t, but everyone ready if they did. Maybe they would find a home again.

* * *

There hadn’t been time yet. Callie had caught a glimpse of her, before she had walked away with the many injured that had been travelling with her.

It was getting late now, and she was at the door of medical, trying to gain courage to go and see her. She kept talking herself to go in and then she was caught by Jackson.

“You can go in. She’s done with patients, she’s just doing inventory. You should catch her before she goes to the Chancellor chamber.” _Ohhh… yes, Callie had heard that somehow Abby was now Chancellor._ “Also it’s good to see you. Abby has missed you.”

“It’s good to see you too, Jackson.”

“Go in,” he said before walking down the corridor.

“Jackson, I thought I told you to go to sleep. We had a long day today,” she spoke not looking up from her papers.

“I see you keep giving advice you don’t follow. I’m glad the chancellorship didn’t break the rebel in you.”

“Callie…”

“It’s me, Abs,” she said, breaking the small distance to the table.

“I thought I saw you, but I didn’t want to ask anyone. I didn’t want anyone to tell me you were dead.”

“I’m not dead, Abby,” she said with a smile. “It’s really me.” And with that Abby threw her arms around her and Callie hugged her just as strongly. “You’re alive,” she whispered again.

“So are you. And you built a town and you’re Chancellor. You need to tell me how that happened. I thought Kane would die before letting that happen.”

“Marcus has changed.”

“He has a beard now.”

“He does,” she said with a laugh. “And we’re actually working together on building Arkadia. We’re meeting after I finish inventory, come with me.”

“Okay.”

“Stay with me while I finish this.”

“I’m not leaving again, Abby,” Callie promised and sat against the table as Abby finished her work, remembering simpler times of when she sat on Abby’s bed as her best friend studied for her medical exams.

* * *

Abby felt her heart stop again, for the last two years that had happened more often than anyone cared to admit, but here it was again.

The words “it’s gone. It’s all gone” playing on repeat in Abby’s head, as she heard Raven’s tears and the room was brought into silence, until she spoke.

“Raven,” Abby called out, taking Bellamy's hand, trying to speak into the radio. “Raven, was Callie...”

“Callie wasn't at the Mount Weather.” The answer didn't come from the radio, but from the room, as Charles spoke, “She didn't want to come, and she wouldn't be convinced. She said she would fight you on that.”

Abby didn't know why but tears broke through her body, probably relief, but her body was going down, Marcus held her as she cried on his shoulder.

“Shhh... she's okay, Abby, she's okay,” Marcus whispered to her as he held her close.

“I almost got her killed.”

“But she isn't. She's stubborn like you and she's safe at home.”

“I can't lose her again. Not this again.”

“She’s okay, Abby. She wasn’t there,” he reminded her again, and she pulled back, squeezing his hand as a thank you, before quickly turning her face to the crowd and cleaning the tears, before she could speak as the Sky People representative, Ice Nation spoke.

“You should have never moved your people back into Mount Weather. The Ice Nation did what Lexa was too weak to do.”

 _They did this because of her…_ Marcus had been right, she should have listened to him – he had known that they would never accept people in there. Everything moved so fast after that, and her next thought was that she needed to get home, to Callie. Marcus must have read her mind, and with a hand on her shoulder, he spoke,

“We need to get home. If they attacked Mount Weather, Arkadia could be next.”

Abby was ready to leave, already moving, when she realized Clarke still hadn’t moved, frozen next to Lexa, she didn’t even move when Bellamy called. Abby looked at her daughter, older than her years, burden by her actions, with her hair braided and eyes painted, but still her girl, that she wanted safe and with her.

“Clarke…”

“I have to make sure she keeps her word,” Clarke spoke, “And you need to go, Mom.” And as they hugged, Clarke whispered on her ear, “Callie is safe. I’ll make sure you and her and everyone in Arkadia is safe.”

“It’s too much responsibility for one person,” she said back.

“Tell Callie you love her.”

“I love you too, Clarke.”

“I know, Mom,” her daughter told her, before stepping back.

“Be safe,” she heard Marcus speak next to her, just before Abby followed him out.

* * *

Abby still felt her heart beat too fast. Marcus kept his hand wrapped on hers, hoping to calm her down, squeezing her hand when he felt her going down. And then they parked, he let go of her hand and carefully whispered.

“Go…”

“We need to…”

“Go. We can deal with that later.”

“Thank you, Marcus.” Abby left the rover with the others, helped down with the guards, thanked them and then searched the dock. She saw her in the back, talking with someone else who had come with her and luckily she hadn’t sent to their deaths; Abby probably should wait until they finished talking, but right now she didn’t care that she was busy or that there were other people in the room, that everyone was mourning, she just couldn’t be more relieved that _she_ wasn’t gone.

Abby walked up to her, but soon it turned to running and before she knew she had thrown her arms around her, before grabbing her face and kissing her. Callie was caught by surprise, too much to properly kiss back.

“Sorry I didn’t do that before,” Abby apologized, pulling back, and feeling tears fall down her face.

“Why are you crying?”

“I thought you had died when we heard about… I thought I had killed you.”

“Abby. No. Noo… you didn’t, I’m okay. You didn’t kill anyone,” she whispered, wiping her tears away. “I love you and we’re okay,” she said, pulling her lips to hers, holding her face close with Abby dipping her fingers into her dark hair.

Abby kissed her back, then. A kiss they had desired for too long and had stopped themselves from sharing any earlier, but they did stop themselves after a bit, the need for air and the presence of eyes on her.

“We should stop,” Callie whispered, and Abby rested her forehead on hers.

“Come with me,” Abby asked.

“Of course,” she said, taking Abby’s hand.

“I need to meet with Marcus first. This is not easy.” Abby squeezed her hand and pulled her along as she walked up to Marcus.

“Marcus, we should meet,” she told him, catching him at the end of the room.

“Abby, you two should…” he told her.

“We need to meet before tomorrow morning.”

“You sure?”

“Yes,” she agreed as they walked to her chambers.

Abby didn’t let go of Callie’s hand, but fell in place with Marcus as they started talking about what they should do next – they were both sure that they didn’t want to start a war.

“We need to handle this very carefully,” Marcus said as he closed the door.

“I know.”

“Charles was pushing for war. We can’t…”

“I know, Marcus, but we need to thread carefully. A lot of people don’t trust Grounders especially after today.”

“We’re the Thirteen Clan, Abby. We have the protection of the Coalition.”

“Abby, what do you guys mean?”

“Marcus, show her,” Abby told him, but he was already pulling his shirt up. Callie could see the mark on his arm.

“People are not going to like that.”

“It was the only solution.”

“It was our Unity Day, Callie. It’s peace, we’re together in this,” Marcus spoke, “The Commander said she would send an army to protect us.”

“Are you expecting another attack from Ice Nation?”

“We don’t know,” Marcus answered. “The attack was against Lexa not us.”

“People won’t accept that. We need to defuse the situation.”

“We will. I will stand by you tomorrow at the meeting.”

“I know. Charles won’t be easy.”

“We’ll get through this, together,” he told her resting his hand on her shoulders and she thanked him with a look. Marcus left them alone after that, and Abby turned to Callie still on the couch.

“You’re right. He’s different. It’s not just the beard.” Abby agreed to that, and at the same time wondering what Callie has been thinking – somehow Marcus had become the man she had wished he was when they were young and she still thought she could fall in love and they could be real couple.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just weird,” she said, trying to wrap her head around the changes. “But you know I hear you have a bed around here…”

“You’ve been asking around about my bed then,” Abby said, smiling as she stepped closer.

“Of course, I needed to hope you’d invite me back.” Callie avoided sharing that multiple people already believed Marcus was sharing her bed.

“Hope is the last to die,” Abby told her as she pulled her up and led her to her bedroom.

“Big bed.”

“One of the few double beds in Arkadia.”

“One of the perks of dating the Chancellor.”

“Definitely,” Abby said with a smirk, “Now I’m thinking you’re only with me for the bed.”

“It’s the body, darling.” Abby laughed at that and she hadn’t laughed like that in a long time. “And we’ve been dressed for too long.”

“Already ahead of you,” Abby told her, pulling off her shoes. They undressed in silence after that, but in a hurry, the clothes getting scattered around the room, until they were only in their underwear, something in them stopped from taking off those final pieces of clothing.

Callie turned around and stopped on her ground as she looked at Abby with her back to her, standing in her panties and pulling a small tank top over her head. And then she saw the scars on her lower back, they weren’t there before – they were violent and vile, someone had hurt her…

Callie had been about to speak when she saw Abby stop as she took off her necklace – she tried to never put herself into that moment. Callie still felt like she was betraying Jake, her friend, in some way, giving in to feelings she had had for so long.

With the necklace safely on top of the dresser, Abby turned around to look at Callie, and she must have read her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your back, Abby…” she whispered. “Your leg, thigh…” she whispered next, finding those scars, looking at her front.

“Callie, it’s nothing…”

“It’s not nothing. Someone burned your back… Did the grounders kidnap you? Did they torture you?”

“No. It wasn’t that,” Abby said, sitting down on the bed.

“Does it still hurt?” Callie asked kneeling on the bed next to her.

“No. Not anymore,” she answered. “The back was Marcus…”

“What?! HE HURT YOU!! Why did you let me believe he had changed?”

“He did change, Callie,” she said holding Callie down. “I did a stupid thing… And Marcus followed the Exodus Charter. And then he gave me the pin and went to get my daughter back.”

“What could it be stupid enough for that?”

“I gave guns to kids, for them to search for Clarke. One of the kids ended up shooting a village, killing children and all.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I gave them the guns,” Abby answered, before continuing, “Don’t blame Marcus for this. I don’t… he needed to do it, and then he did the right thing.”

“He found Clarke?”

“No, Clarke came home on her own. Marcus started the peace agreements with the Grounders.”

“Okay, and the leg one…”

“The Mountain… The people inside…”

“They wanted to kill you…”

“They wanted to live. They needed our bone marrow.”

“They…”

“They drilled into my leg,” Abby whispered. “Raven’s too, and Harper’s, and they killed a few of the kids.”

“That’s why Clarke…”

“She pulled the lever because I was on the table,” Abby admitted, “And that’s why she left.”

“I’m sorry, Abby…”

“Callie…”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here…”

“You couldn’t have done anything. I couldn’t… Marcus and I tried to convince them to not drill into us, that we would give them the marrow. We would have – safe, only adults… We could all be alive.”

“It’s not your fault that they didn’t want to reach agreement,” Callie whispered, touching her leg, near the scar.

“I know… but it still…” Abby said, letting her head fall on Callie’s shoulder for a few seconds, rebuilding herself again, calming down, before turning to her lover and pushing her down on the bed. Abby quickly straddled her and traced her eyes over her body.

Callie had changed too. No scars as prominent as her own, but she could see some burns on Callie’s left arm, and a long scar near her shoulder blades.

“A fire. I was too close,” she spoke looking at her arm. “I wasn’t used to the trees at first, kept going against them, I got cut deeply by one, caught on shirt and then skin.”

“I’m sorry,” Abby whispered, bending down to kiss the scar. “I guess it’s the sins of the Earth. Up there everything was safe and clean – our bodies perfectly cared for.”

Abby spoke, and Callie thought that it was only true for a few. Alpha people like Abby, or even Mecha like herself. She remembered the scars on Marcus’ body, a kid who grew up on a Station not meticulously perfect, with parts broken that cut children when they fell and left them with infections, when parents wouldn’t take them to medical.

Abby knew of that reality too. Too many patients have gone through her hands like that. But Abby and Callie’s bodies had been free of scars, marks of time, of course, but not scars – that was an Earth reality for them.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to patch you up,” Abby said, taking her arm to her lips, taking the time to check how it was healing as well.

“Next time.”

“No, more times, please, Callie.”

“Come here,” Callie said bringing her hand to her cheek and bringing her down to a kiss, knowing she couldn’t promise her to be safe.

Abby answered the kiss with enthusiasm, immediately trying to get entrance into her mouth, which Callie happily gave, feeling Abby’s tongue in hers. Her right hand on her hip, while the other on her neck, pulling her closer, Callie herself kept her hand entertained on Abby’s hair, freeing it from the ponytail – she liked this new hairdo – it was funny to play with.

“Better?” Abby asked with a smile when she pulled back and her hair fell around her shoulders.

“You’re always beautiful,” she answered with a smile.

“Sweet talker,” Abby said pulling her own bra over her head, before pulling Callie’s underwear down. “I missed this.”

“Me too, darling.”

Callie pulled her own bra off, taking one of her nipples in hand, and rolling in between her fingers, as she felt Abby’s lips coming closer and closer to her, before actually touching her where Callie most wanted. She had one hand holding onto the blankets, keeping her from pulling on Abby’s honeyed hair.

“Abby…” she pleaded.

“Patience is a virtue.”

 _Yes, it was._ So Callie bit her lip, trying to stop her moans, when Abby finally kissed her where she wanted her, exploring her with her tongue the way she knew Callie liked.

“Callie,” she called back frustrated, looking up from her place between her legs. “Ohh… Shit… you’re bleeding,” Abby pulled herself up, cleaning Callie’s lips with her thumb, and Callie took it in her mouth.

“It tastes good,” Callie said, when Abby pulled the finger back.

“I know. I could still be tasting it.”

“Why aren’t you?”

“Don’t bite your lip, Callie.”

“Don’t be a tease, Abigail.”

Abby mouthed “shut up” at that, before disappearing between her tights again, as Callie took her hand to her breasts again, moving from one nipple to the other, while her other grabbed Abby’s hair – not pulling or pushing anything, just holding as she kissed her thoroughly, taking the clit between her lips, and letting two fingers inside her folds. And this time Callie didn’t hold back, whispering Abby’s name and multiple curses over and over again, until she came, holding strongly to Abby’s hair.

“How do you feel?” Abby said, climbing back on the bed and kissing her again.

“Good, so good, you taste good too.”

“So eloquent…”

“You know communications and stuff like that.”

“I love how drowsy you get after sex.”

“Okay, I’m not moving now, Abby. So drop your underwear and come here,” Callie told her, and Abby did as requested, straddling Callie’s face.

“Now don’t push. You almost smothered me last time.”

“It would be a good way to go.”

“You’re Chancellor now. You can’t be found with a dead body in your bed,” Callie shot back, “Now let me,” she said, bringing Abby down to her lips, licking her as she liked and appreciating the moans and groans coming from her lover’s mouth.

* * *

None of them could believe the votes. Abby was mad and pacing the room, and Marcus looked defeated and disappointed, in a way that made Callie miss the time when his eyes and face were unreadable.

“It’s not right, Marcus, you should be Chancellor,” Abby spoke, “You should win, that’s what’s good for our people.”

“We can’t,” he spoke reading her suggesting, that she knew was wrong. “They made their choice. They chose Pike.”

“It will destroy everything we built, that you built.”

“We will keep doing what’s right, Abby. We will make sure Charles doesn’t do anything drastic,” Marcus spoke holding Abby’s hands in his.

“Together.”

“Yes, together,” he agreed.

“I should go there, I guess.”

“If you go there, you will punch him in the face, Abs,” Callie finally spoke. “I will go and give him the pin.”

“You sure?” Marcus asked her.

“Yes. You two rest… And I’m really sorry to both of you. Marcus, you could have been good at this.”

“Thank you, Callie.”

Callie took the pin from Abby’s hand, and bent down to kiss the top of her head as she now sat on the couch and gave Marcus’ shoulder a squeeze.

Callie left the Chancellor office and made the walk to the brig, she noticed people looking at her, some disappointed, other looking smugly at her after the win. Callie looked at head, walked past the guards and called Charles to her.

“You won the election, Charles,” she spoke, giving him the pin.

“Thank you,” he said, taking it from her hand and pining it to his jacket. She was scared for what would come next, Callie had seen what Ice Nation had made of him. “As my first official action as Chancellor, I pardon myself and the others. For my second official act, you can tell Kane, I reject the brand of the thirteen clan. And for my third, we’ll finish what we started.”

“This isn’t right, Charles,” she spoke, “This is a chance for peace, that’s what Marcus and Abby built here,” she said, looking at the others in the room. “That’s what we wanted, that’s what we dreamed of.”

“That was before they killed our people. You were there when they slaughtered our children. You were supposed to be there, when they blew us up at Mount Weather. You know how they can be…”

“Marcus and Abby built peace for us.”

“Always them, right, Callie. You were always following them and now you’re on the wrong side.”

“Theirs is not the wrong side,” Callie was ready to leave at that, she knew it was their end now. She knew that not him or anyone in that room was going to listen to him

“Callie, you can tell _Doctor_ Griffin that she can stay in her chambers tonight, I won’t need them until I get back in morning.”

He let her walk out first, but then he followed with his people. Callie made it back to the Chancellor chambers, punching in Clarke’s birthday (Abby could be predictable when it came to pass codes), and found that Abby and Marcus had made a dent in the bottle.

Abby was leaning on Marcus’ lap, with her legs up, as Marcus took another chug of his drink. Abby looked at her as she came in and tried to reach for her, almost falling from the couch if Marcus hadn’t caught her on time.

“How much as she had to drink?” she asked coming around and sitting on the end of the couch, patting her legs.

Marcus didn’t answer either, but shrugged his shoulders, and pointed to an already empty bottle.

“I wasn’t gone for long,” she said, accepting the bottle.

“What did he say?”

“He’s renouncing the Coalition. He’s attacking tonight. He wouldn’t listen to me. Nobody would. I tried. You did good.”

“She did,” he spoke, looking at Abby.

“No. Abby told me you were the first to trust the Grounders. _You_ did good, Marcus.”

“I can’t take more politics tonight. Dance with me, Callie,” Abby pleaded, and she couldn’t say no, she took Abby in her arms, as Marcus put on some music on his tablet.

“Thank you, Marcus,” Abby thanked him. “How long until he kicks me out?”

“We have the night.”

“And then I’m homeless.”

“You take my room. It’s small, but private.”

“Marcus…”

“Pike will take it from me soon, maybe he’ll let you keep it. I can bunk with the guards.”

“Thank you,” Abby spoke to him, before swaying to the sound of the music in Callie’s arms, her head resting on her shoulder. The couple having been transported to their own little magic world, one where they weren’t going to enter a war that could only end with casualties on both parts or a world where their future hadn’t completely been thrown away. Far away in their own world, they didn’t notice Marcus had left the Chamber until they decided to retire to bed. 

* * *

 

Things had gotten worse with each day. Charles didn’t stop, he now had a platform for his desire to irradiate all grounders, and Farm was siding with him more and more. The Coopers seemed to be the only ones still talking to her.

“Hi, Callie,” Hal greeted her, carrying a plate, two plates of food, and sitting in front of her. “Kara told me to make sure you’re eating.”

“I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“She’s working with the farm,” he said, and then seemed to hesitate.

“Go on, Hal.”

“Pike keeps trying to pressure her to join. She wasn’t a bad soldier, but those were different circumstances – she doesn’t want to fight. She was talking with the Bartlet kid and they had real peace here.”

“I know. Marcus and Abby built it.”

“But Kara doesn’t know how many more times she can say no.”

“She can’t side with Pike, you saw what he did to those sleeping men and women.”

“I know, but they also blew up Mount Weather. Sierra and Rickon were in there.”

“You think I don’t remember that…” Callie murmured letting her head fall on her hands, and pushing the plate away. “They were other grounders.”

“I know. I talked to the kid, before he was thrown in jail and he seemed like a good boy. Straight head on his shoulder – he helped me move a few things.”

“I think his name is Lincoln.”

“How do we know that the others are like him or like the ones that killed our people?”

“We don’t, Hal. We talk, and we learn.”

“Callie, I see that, but Kara is all day closed in a place with Pike’s people.”

“I get that. I will handle this,” she said, standing up from the table.

“No, just… just talk to Kara.”

“I will, but now I have other things to do.”

“Finish eating at least.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You need food. You always made sure we ate out there.”

“We didn’t know when we were going to eat again.”

“With the blockade, same will happen here,” he reminded her. “Just eat or I’ll tell your girlfriend. She won’t like it.”

Callie send him a look at that.

“You threatened to tell on me, multiple times. To Kara.”

“It’s fun, you’re afraid of your wife, Hal Cooper,” she said sitting back down to finish dinner and it was not because she was scared of Abby.

“So everyone knows about Abby and I?” she asked after a few moments.

“Pretty much. I didn’t think you were trying to keep it a secret.”

“We weren’t. So I guess it’s obvious.”

“Yes,” he said. “Some people were surprised. They thought something was going on with Kane. Mostly the kids I guess. Any adult remembers them trying to kill each other,” he continued telling her. “There was a poll on. Some people lost a good amount of money and rations when you came back.”

“Who won?”

“I don’t know the kid’s name. Sorry. But ask Raven and she will tell you the whole story.”

“I’ll ask her then,” she said. “And my plate is empty now, so can I leave now?”

“Go,” he told her.

“Thanks for the company, Hal. This was nice. And thank you for coming to me and not Pike. Farm Station can still count on me,” she said, resting a hand on his broad shoulders as his green eyes, looked up to her.

“I know that.”

“Good.” She took his empty plate with hers and walked away, letting it fall with the rest of the dirty dishes and made her way to the medical bay to see if Abby was ready to retire to their bedroom.

Callie walked into the room, finding Abby still working behind her desk, looking up and smiling the moment she entered the room. The smile was good thing, she had been worried since she saw Clarke and she had to sent her away with Octavia – Abby had cried herself to sleep that night.

“Hi.”

“Hey, I came to see if you were ready to go to bed. And if you’ve eaten?”

“Jackson got me dinner. And no, I’m still going to go and check on the patients Pike had locked up for no good reason. And to see how Lincoln is holding up.”

“Do you want me to go with you?”

“No, go to our room,” Abby said, coming around the table to softly kiss Callie on the lips. “I’ll be with you soon.”

“I’ll wait up for you,” Callie promised with another quick kiss, before leaving Abby alone in medical once more.

She walked through the halls, looking for what was now her room, typing up the new code, in the current situation it wasn’t smart to keep Clarke’s birthday as the code, and she walked in, surprised to not find it empty.

Marcus was sitting on a chair, Nate Miller standing near his father, while Harper was at the end of the bed.

“It’s just Callie,” Harper spoke, and Marcus took his walkie-talkie from behind his back.

“Nice sentiment,” Callie said, sitting next to her on the bed, ruffling the girl’s hair.

“What’s happening?”

“They are attacking a village – they are taking away land from grounders,” David caught her up.

“They say it’s for farming purposes.”

“That’s why they want Kara.”

“Kara Cooper?”

“Her husband talked to me, they are trying to recruit her.”

“And she?”

“She’s been saying no, but there’s only so much she can say.”

“You can’t let more people join their ranks,” the younger Miller spoke.

“Do you think I’m not trying? They don’t listen to me.”

“We need to do something. Bryan is going with them tomorrow.”

“I know, Miller,” Marcus said. “Octavia is working on getting those people out of the village.

“And it they don’t,” Harper asked.

“I trust her,” he spoke.

“We need to still do something here,” David reminded them, they all saw how moral was right now and besides something was happening with Thelonious since he came back, that they couldn’t truly understand.

Marcus started going over what he had in mind to stop Pike if nothing else worked with Octavia. Out of the guards now, he had time to figure out their plans, listening to everyone’s suggestions, and making changes – the plan was to definitely make less people see Charles’ side.

“I’ll try to talk to Monroe again,” Harper said, looking deflated. “But with Bellamy on his side… people, our people, trust him, especially with Clarke gone.”

“I know,” Marcus agreed, as they all moved to the door.

“I’ll try Bryan.”

“Thank you.”

They left through the door after that, leaving her and Marcus alone for a bit longer, he still sat on the chair, his head on his hands, she came to sit closer to him.

“I really don’t know what I’m doing,” he whispered.

“Marcus, you and Abby will fix this,” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I don’t know what we can do,” he told her. “I should go.” Abby came in as he stood up to leave the room.

“Hi, Marcus.”

“How were the grounders?”

“They are sick, they need help, and I can’t help them with them there.”

“Lincoln?”

“He’s worried about Octavia. I told him she was okay.”

“She’s saving us.”

“We’ll figure out what to do,” she said smiling at him.

“How can you be sure?”

“I’m not, Marcus, but we have to hope.”

Marcus was at the door now, ready to leave, opening the door just as Abby spoke at last.

“Come see me when you know something tomorrow.”

“I will.”

Callie kissed Abby’s back of the head, trying to relax her, knowing no easy days were ahead, and tomorrow Callie would have to do her part too.

For that reason, after a quiet night shared with Abby, and after leaving her still sleeping on the bed, she went to the dining room, wanting to find Kara who took breakfast on one of the first shifts. After getting some bread and a bowl of yogurt, she walked up to the table where the Coopers were.

“Hi,” she greeted them. “Can I have a word with you, Kara?”

“Hal spoke with you.”

“He did. You can’t say yes to him, Kara, you can’t,” Callie said sitting down with them.

“I know that. But you know what’s working with people that are doing everything to make me miserable - they destroy every step forward I take. They are wasting food to make me say yes. They’re faulting me if people can’t eat.”

“Kara…”

“I don’t want to say yes. I don’t want a war. I never wanted to fight, I did it for our lives out there, Arkadia was supposed to be safe – we got here, and Hal and I started picturing a family.”

“We can have that, but not with Pike in power.”

“He won the election,” she said. “I told you to run. Our people would have voted for you too, the people behind Abby and Kane would have voted for you.”

“I’m not made to lead.”

“You lead us out there. You’ve been leading us since Diana Sydney exploded with the Ark.”

“I had to, now I--”

“Be our leader, Callie,” Kara said, before leaving the table.

“What did she mean, Hal?”

“I think you know,” he said and left too – these Coopers had a way for the dramatics. But Callie knew what she had to do and walked to the Chancellor office, and knocked on the door.

Hannah Green opened the door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Callie, sir.”

“Let her in, the meeting is finished either way. Go get ready.” Most left at that, but Hannah and Gillmer stayed back. “What do you need, Callie?”

“I need you to stop harassing Kara Cooper.”

“I’ve done nothing of the type.”

“Tell your people to stop then. She has told them she doesn’t want to join your cause.”

“She doesn’t want to join the right cause,” he emended. “I’m sure they’re only trying to help her make sure she makes the right choice.”

“She has made the right choice. You are not the one in the right here.”

“You know what the grounders have done to us. Pike is the solution,” Hannah spoke. “This is our way to peace.”

“War is never peace. The solution is not to cause the demise of everyone, to attack a defenseless village.”

“So Kane knows our plan.”

“Sir…”

“Someone has to try and oppose to you.”

“And that’s Kane then. What are you doing here then?”

“I’m fighting for my people, for Farm people, having their interests in mind and to tell you to leave Kara alone.”

Gillmer laughed at that.

“We’re not your people,” he said with spite in his voice. “The moment we got here, we didn’t matter. You think you’re better than us like everyone else.”

“Gillmer,” Pike called out as a warning.

“But you do not matter, Callie, you’re nothing but Kane’s and Dr Griffin’s pet.”

Callie didn’t know what was happening, but she was going for his throat at that moment, if Pike hadn’t held her back.

“Gillmer, no more words out of you.”

“It’s the truth, sir, everything that comes out of her mouth is a repeat of that traitor’s and his bitch.”

“Gillmer, that’s out of line,” Pike argued, and Callie took the moment to get away from his and moved over to show him what she thought of his language.

* * *

Jackson still couldn’t quite believe this was happening and the way news normally ran through Arkadia, he needed to find her and be the one to tell her – he was just glad young Miller had found him before anyone else. Jackson had just left her and medical bay a few minutes ago, just as Kane was coming in to see her – Jackson imagined he didn’t know either. He found both of them still there, Marcus looking confused and up at her from where he was on the bed, and Abby was just stepping away from him – moments like that had made him wonder if something had been happening between them before Callie had come back.

“Abby,” he called out.

“I thought I had sent you away for the day. Infirmary is quiet, now that Pike took all our patients.”

“Abby, you have to come with me,” he told her. “Pike arrested Callie.” And with that Abby was gone, with Kane and Jackson trailing her.

Abby wasn’t sure where to go first, if she should walk up to Pike or Callie, but they quickly realized she was walking to the Chancellor’s office, before Kane spoke.

“They have left, Abby. He’s not here.” She must have heard him, even if she didn’t answer, because she turned around and went to the brig.

They recognized some of the Farm people still supporting Callie near the entrance, trying to make it through and talking with the guards. Abby recognized them as the Coopers, as they turned to her, after looking over Marcus.

“They arrested Callie, Dr Griffin,” the man spoke.

“She was there, because of me,” the woman continued.

“Kara, it’s not your fault,” the husband told his wife, Kara.

“Jackson, go back to medical, I can handle this. Someone needs to be there,” Abby ordered, but he took a moment, checking with Marcus first if he could go.

“I’m staying,” Marcus whispered.

“Let me through,” Abby spoke to the guards.

“I have orders to--”

“Come on, Smith,” Kara complained. “Callie was with us out there. She saved our lives multiple times. She suffered for us.”

“I know, Kara, but these are my orders.”

“Those orders are wrong. We were a team,” she continued. But Abby was still processing her words before, about suffering, Callie had been very secretive about what had happened to her, but Abby had noticed that some scars couldn’t just be from knocking into trees.

“I’m the Doctor here, Smith. I have patients to see.”

“I can’t. I was told…”

“Do you want someone to die on your watch?”

“No, but--"

“Let me through them.”

“Only you. No contact with Callie,” he ordered, but she had no intention to listen to that, so she made it into the room and then into the cell, with the door opened for her. “Everyone back. No contact with Dr Griffin, Callie.”

But the moment he was out of the cell, she ran to the arms on Callie, holing her in her arms, before pulling back, and asking what happened.

“Nothing,” she said. “I was too rash about something and Charles had a reason to put me here.”

“Why were you there?”

“I told you, the Coopers are my people. I couldn’t let you or Marcus handle this – it was my business.”

“Did he listen to you?”

“No. So I need you to be on the lookout for them.”

“Why? I’m getting you out.”

“You are, when you and Marcus regain control and not any time before.”

“Callie…”

“I’m okay, and safe. Lincoln is nice company.”

“Callie…”

“Look over the grounders. They’re getting sicker,” Callie asked her, walking her over to her other side of the cell. Callie sat next to Lincoln at that, as Abby checked on the grounders, she realized she needed to send more medicine for them, they were not getting any better.

“Abby, how is she?” Lincoln asked.

“She still needs medicine. I’ll send some more.”

“Dr Griffin, your time is up.”

“I’m still with patients.”

“You can come back later, and not waste as much time not doing your job.”

“Smith, let her finish,” Callie told the guard, and the one next to him, told him to stop complaining. And Abby finished the check-up, before walking up to the door, to ask to be let out, but before she turned to Callie, standing next to her.

“I don’t want you here.”

“I know, Abby, and that’s Charles’ point, as long I’m here you’re worried about that – you can’t. You need to lead and take care of these people.”

“I know. I will.”

“Now kiss me,” Callie whispered, coming closer. “You know he’ll send Jackson from now on.”

“I love you,” Abby said, pulling her lips up to hers and holding her close, opening their mouths together, and pushing harder into each other, holding to Callie’s waist, pulling her close to her. They continued kissing, ignoring the guards outside yelling for them to stop, but soon they were forced to stop with the guards pulling them apart.

Abby pushed away from the cell, she shared a last look with Callie, promising her that she would be back, to get her away.

 

* * *

It was dawn and they were coming and they all knew it. She knew Marcus well enough that he wouldn’t want a goodbye – he had seen Abby yesterday and he had looked so defeated when he had been brought back. Callie had only taken his hand and rested her head on his shoulder as he pretended not to cry and calmed himself.

So Callie was saying goodbye, before the guards came, and closer to Sinclair, she walked to him first, sitting next to him.

“Don’t be sad for me,” he spoke, “I’m going to see my wife again.”

“I’m sorry, kid,” she told him none the less, calling him by the nickname that always annoyed him. Sinclair had been a few years behind them in school, so always younger than them, even if he seemed to follow them around sometimes. And then the moment he joined engineering, he and Jake had just clicked, and he was finally brought into the inner circle.

Sinclair didn’t look sad now. He had been a happy kid and then person, but since she came back she noticed something was missing. It was _her_. His wife. Callie had never seen anyone as happy as him on their wedding day, not even Jake and Abby.

“I miss her, you know. Work helped keeping my mind of it or taking care of Raven, but being here… Alone with my thoughts.”

“She would be proud of you.”

“She would call me stupid for getting caught. She wouldn’t have – she was always the rebel.”

“She was,” Callie said with a laugh. Maria was closer to Callie’s own age, just one year younger and she remembered hearing the trouble she got at school – nothing serious enough that would get her arrested but close. She remembered bets going around about when she would be sent to skybox.

Of course, as everyone with sense does in the Ark, she straightened out at eighteen – the danger of death being too big. In the end, the travel down ended up killing her.

“Don’t worry about me, Cece,” he said, laying a kiss on her cheek. “Enjoy Earth and go talk to Kane.”

Callie got up as his words, and bent down to kiss his cheek too, before giving the traditional parting words, and walking on Marcus direction, who had his eyes closed and leaned against the wall, but as she suspected wasn’t sleeping, opening his eyes when she stepped close.

“We had fun, didn’t we?” she said with a smile.

“We did,” he answered, and she rested on the wall next to him, turning her head to him, moving closer until he laid a soft kiss against her lips, so different from the thousand kisses they had shared over the years.

“Take care of Abby.”

“She can take of herself.”

“I know that,” he said with a laugh. “Just make sure she’s okay.”

“I will,” she said. “And you can tell Jake the same, I’m sure he will ask. And kiss him for me.”

“All the Griffins for you.”

“Hey, Marcus, thank you,” she said throwing her arms around him and feeling his arms around her and his lips on her hair, as tears started to fall.

Callie pulled back from this man she had shared most of her life with and was hard to accept he was dying today. Besides Abby, he was the person who knew her best, not that they would have admitted it up there, because everything they ever did was never for each other but only for themselves. Marcus bought a second towel for his chamber with bathroom included, because his towel could tear (it never did). Callie moved the small light of her side of the bed to the other one she never slept on, because she needed a night light (and not because he liked to read before falling asleep). He would always mention in conversation when was green beans or carrot day because he knew she hated one and loved the other. And she would mention to him about new books for taking after a passing and left the one she thought he would like on top for him to find. All these small gestures were normal for them, built into their lives, but never with the assumption they were done for each other.

Marcus and Callie were never meant to marry each other – they couldn’t be the people Sinclair and Maria were or Jake and Abby. Or have what Callie had shared with Mara as they fell in love and shared a home, as this woman raised her child and dealt with her husband’s deteriorating health. But they were something, and maybe it was akin to love.

Callie felt the tears fall and with the parting words Marcus had spent a childhood reciting, she stepped way, moving in the direction of Lincoln – a recent acquaintance, but a good boy, young too, and Abby and Marcus had been right to trust him.

“I’ll look after them, Lincoln. I will.”

“Thank you. I know this people trust you.”

“While they still do, I’ll be here.”

“Thank you. Denae will help you,” he said. “Help Abby too.”

“I will, Lincoln. This is not in vain – Abby and Clarke will fix this. The Griffin women can do anything they put their minds to.”

“I know. Octavia won’t let them stop – she knows our ways.”

“Chancellor on deck. Time,” two different voices came from the corridor. And Callie saw as Pike marched to take these three men away. And once again, Callie repeated the words.

_May We Meet Again._

* * *

Callie didn’t know what was happening for days now. Somehow Marcus and Sinclair survived, while Lincoln was executed in cold blood outside – a terrifying vision, hearing anyone speak of it.

Charles was on a mission to hunt who let them out. And they all know Abby did it. Nobody will tell Callie if Doctor Griffin was still alive – _Pike wouldn’t kill her without arresting first, right?_ She wanted to believe so, but he was also the man who killed an entire sleeping army.

Days went by and she was left in the dark. The guards outside the cell left and never came back, there was no food brought in, and Callie had her heart on her hands, not sure why everyone seemed to be gone.

Inside the cell it was just her and the grounders, none of them who could speak English with her. Callie tried to calm them, taking a seat next to the youngest and distracting them with any possible games she could think of. But after two days the hunger spoke louder.

Denae, the leader of the group, came to her once again, making the sign for food.

“I don’t know,” she whispered, shaking her head repeatedly.

The third day, they were all weaker and she was sure something awful had happened. And then Abby came and opened the door.

“Abby!!” Callie exclaimed, and even in her weak body, she ran to her and hugged her. “They need help, Abby. Food.”

“Jackson has them,” Abby answered. “And so do you. Come with me.”

She followed Abby. She failed Lincoln in that moment.

They went to their chambers where there was already food waiting for her, she ate – too hungry and too tired for any questions, and she missed all the hints – she missed Abby looking behind her like someone was there, or the apparent coldness in her voice.

“Rest,” Abby told her, noticing Callie starting to yawn and she took her on the offer cuddling next to Abby’s side on the bed, with a blanket pulled on top of her.

Abby didn’t cover herself with the blanket and didn’t fall asleep that night, she was still in the same position when Callie woke up mid-morning.

“Hey,” Abby greeted her softly. “How are you feeling?”

“Still tired, sleepy,” Callie whispered. “Lay down with me, please.”

“I’m here,” Abby said, pulling her close. “You can take this, it will help.”

“Is this the chip Thelonious had being handing in?”

“Yeah, it’s the Key to the City of Light,” she answered, before adding. “It’s safe. I’ve done tests.”

“No, you had said it was strange, that it couldn’t be something normal.”

“It is safe. The City of Light is safe. There’s no pain anymore.”

“Abby… that’s not normal,” Callie said, getting up from the bed, trying to move away.

“It’s really safe,” Abby promised. “You can be in the City of Light with me.”

“I can convince her,” Abby talked to someone who wasn’t there, Callie looked around and there was nobody there.

“Abby, I’m not taking the chip. You told me not too.” Callie moved to the door, and before she could get away, Thelonious was on the other side.

“Callie just take the chip,” he said, giving her another one of the blue things.

“I won’t.”

“I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

“I’m not taking it.”

“I don’t want to have to hurt Abby.”

“She’s your friend, Thelonious.”

“Callie, do it for me.” Abby came behind her at that, kissing her neck, running her hand under her shirt, keeping her close unable to move. “I love you, Callie. Come stay with me.”

“I can’t,” Callie repeated, this time with tears in her eyes, feeling the threatening feelings about her coming up.

“Raven was bleeding out on the floor when Abby surrendered to the key,” he told her. “How long will you let Abby suffer?”

One of the arms had loosened up around her and that was when she saw Abby bring the scalpel to the wrist of the arm still around her waist, pulling the hand away from under her waist.

“No, no,” Callie screamed, as the scalpel started to touch Abby. “Don’t hurt her.”

“Will you take the key then?”

“I will,” she said, turning in Abby’s arms, face to face with her, and raising her hand to her cheek, softly stroking it. “I’m sorry, Abby,” and with that, she accepted the key and gave in, knowing she shouldn’t but would do it again to save Abby.

* * *

Callie still wasn’t sure of what had happened. But some memories had started to come in. Memories of what had happened when she was in the City of Light, the people she hurt, but also the people in there with her, that was someone in particular in her mind.

They were all still stuck on the top floor of the building, she looked around and she found Abby helping some of the people that had been hurt on the fight, and then she saw Marcus sitting on a corner, still with his head on his hands. Abby had calmed him down a bit when he came out of it, but he looked lost again.

Callie walked up to him and lowered herself next to him, taking his hand on hers and resting her head on his shoulder and whispered to him that he was okay. Until the silence took over, just silence, at least until Callie broke it – it probably wasn’t the most appropriate time, but she couldn’t help herself.

“You took the chip for Abby. Thank you,” she said, squeezing his hand, she had the memory of ALIE making Abby nail Marcus to the cross and then making Callie pick up a gun and point it to Abby’s head. “I could have lost her. I could have killed her.”

“It wasn’t you. It was ALIE, it was all ALIE.”

“It wasn’t all her… Marcus, it wasn’t all her, right… She knew… she knew how you felt for her.”

“ALIE made her kiss me. I stopped her immediately – it wasn’t Abby.”

“ALIE made a guess that it would work, because she knew that I knew you had loved her, but you still do. You’ve always loved her…”

“Callie…”

“We had a pack and I broke it.”

“It was a stupid pack we made because we were drunk.”

“Because the woman we both loved was getting married and we promised to never mess with her marriage with Jake.”

“But Jake is gone, Callie. And you’re much better for than me.”

“Marcus, you were inside her mind too,” Callie spoke, looking down at her hands as she pulled on her shirt. “She wanted to kiss you too. It’s not just you.”

“No, no,” he said, shaking his head, “ALIE is just playing tricks.”

“She wasn’t. Abby wants to kiss you.”

“Abby loves you,” he spoke, and it helped her to hear that again.

“She does, but she still wants to kiss you.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” he said, as he pulled Callie to his arms and rested herself against his chest, as tears started to fall. It wasn’t really about this, but about everything that had just happened in the City of Light.

“Marcus, I need your help,” Abby called out as she came closer, “We need to get down there.”

“I know,” he said, standing up, offering his hand to Callie to help her up.

“Hey, baby, you okay?” Abby asked, her eyes filled with worry, taking in Callie’s red eyes, still tear stained.

“Yes, don’t worry.” Abby didn’t seem to believe her and traded a look with Marcus, who signed to Abby to let it go, which Callie was definitely grateful for, because now wasn’t the time for this conversation.


	4. Season 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Polis, Callie, Abby and Marcus try to figure out this post-City of Light world, before reality catches up with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All this Polis stuff is Alison's fault (alstat), she's the one who pleaded for this, so if you like it, send her some love!!! I hope you like it, Alison!!!! :) I hope you all like what I did with the chapter, and I can't wait to finish this with season 5 :D
> 
> Also once again, I don't own the lines/scenes taken from the show (and there are quite a few here :) )
> 
> I hope you all enjoy the chapter and have fun!!!

Nothing happened the first night. They were all too tired. After all, they once again almost been killed, after being saved from not being killed. And they had found out the world was ending, all they had wanted to do was just to crashed on the bed.

Of course, before that happened, it involved convincing Marcus to stay with them on the bed and that he didn’t need to leave. Marcus had offered them his room immediately, so they didn’t need to sleep with the other healers, they had accepted the offer with pleasure but letting him know that only if he didn’t leave – they weren’t kicking him out.

After that discussion about the room, Marcus wanted to take the floor, like the bed wasn’t big enough for them, luckily and with hard work, they convinced him of that. Finally, in bed, they all fell asleep quickly.

Marcus kept himself to his side of the bed, almost afraid of burning if he touched them.

* * *

Next night was something different. They had been gone most of the day, Abby had been with King Roan most of the day and had checked on some other patients as well, while Marcus had been busy with the ambassadors, the ones still living, while the other clans chose their new leaders; and much to Abby’s arguing, he had met with King Roan once as well. Callie hadn’t had much to do, her reason to stay back in Polis hadn’t been a strong one, only Abby hadn’t let go of her hand, and neither Thelonious or Clarke had questioned it. So Callie spent her day walking around, helping where she could – Indra had put her to good use.

Abby was still gone, when Marcus showed up. Callie was already under the covers, and Marcus was frozen at the door, and she spoke before he could even thing about offering to take the floor again.

“Marcus, just get in bed. And take off your pants, that can’t be comfortable.” He still didn’t move. “Marcus, I’ve seen you naked before,” she told him. But as he undressed, she quickly noticed that Marcus didn’t look the same as he did months ago, the scar on his leg, just under his boxers was clear as day.

“Does it still hurt?” she asked him.

“What?”

“Your leg? Abby told me about it. And how you helped her after Mount Weather – her leg sometimes still hurts.”

“It does? She never…”

“You know how she is, she never wants to look weak, but she would have told you if you asked.”

“I asked, Callie,” he said, coming closer to the bed, unsure what to do until she pulled the covers back. “I asked and she told me no.”

“Was it after you lied and told her you were okay too?”

Marcus didn’t answer and that was enough of an answer for Callie.

“You two are impossible, you know that.”

“I didn’t want her to worry.”

“I know. She didn’t want you to worry,” she said, turning to him on the bed. Marcus had no answer to that, so he laid down, this time just a bit closer than last time, she noticed, but just like the night before he fell asleep not too long after (even if she could tell by his breathing and moving, that it wasn’t a restful sleep).

Callie stayed awake, waiting for Abby. She came in tired as well, and after they shared a soft kiss, she fell asleep on the bed as well, on Callie’s other side, but with the same trembling and nightmare filled world Marcus seemed to be immersed in. Callie was the last to fall asleep, but in no way was her sleep easier, images of holding the gun to Abby’s head played over and over again in her dreams, and all she could do was hold Abby closer to reassure herself that they were both still alive, even if not completely okay.

That night Marcus touched her, somehow searching for a familiar body he knew, a body he had touched for years. It hadn’t been often the times they had shared a bed in a literal sense, but Marcus still fitted his body around her, warm and comforting. Abby slept on her other side, her head on her chest, a comfort she looked for, just like Callie, she needed the confirmation that the heart of the person she loved was still beating.

This was how Callie woke up, and she didn’t move, stayed like that. She pretended to be asleep when she noticed Marcus was waking up, and felt him almost jump out of his skin. She knew it wasn’t because his hand had ended up under her shirt, but because he had almost been able to feel Abby’s breath on his face, and that was too close for him, to close to touch.

He left the room, before he knew someone else was awake. And in an empty room Callie and Abby made love for the first time since they left the City of Light.

* * *

Next night was better. Abby and Callie arrived first, somehow still reliving the effects of that same morning, they were quick to kiss in the privacy of their room, and while Abby argued often enough that they should stop because Marcus was coming, it wasn’t hard to convince her not to.

That’s how Marcus arrived at his chamber. A half-naked Callie straddling Abby – Callie had thought it would be easier if she was the naked one, after all she was the body he was awfully familiar with.

“I’m sorry… I can go,” he apologized immediately, turning his back to them, reaching for the door. Abby was ready to apologize too, but Callie was faster.

Callie got off Abby, and still stood there, completely naked from the waist up and with her pants unbuttoned.

“Don’t leave, Marcus,” she said. “And look at me.”

Marcus slowly turned to her and traced her body with his eyes.

“You remember what we spoke after the City of Light.”

“Callie…”

“You do then,” she said. “Now Marcus, I know what I know. I just want to be sure you want this, there’s no guilt here. You’re not betraying me or Abby, or Jake.”

“Jake…” Abby spoke up, taking her hand to her necklace she hadn’t even taken the time to take off yet.

“He’s not here anymore, Marcus. This is not wrong… Do you want to?”

“Yes,” he murmured, looking at his feet. Callie stepped forward at that, lifting his face, but stopped herself from kissing him – she wouldn’t, not before talking with Abby – but she gave him a peck on the cheek.

“Get comfortable,” she whispered to him, before turning back to Abby and reminding her, “I was inside your head, I was with you when we were in the City of Light.”

“I know that, Callie, why is that important now?”

“I was there when ALIE told you to kiss him,” Callie reminded her. “She didn’t have to make you do it, Abby. She lowered your inhibitions and upped your desire and lust, and then put Marcus Kane in front of you.”

“Callie…”

“Ohhh… if she did that to me, I would probably do it too. He’s an attractive man and I already know he’s good in bed.”

“Callie…”

“You still wanted him after that too.”

“Callie, I love you.”

“Both of you do keep reminding me of that,” Callie said with a little smile and noticed them sharing a look. “Even when that’s not the question. You love me, and you’re attracted to Marcus Kane and you care for him – all of these things can be true.”

“And if they are…”

“I would ask you if you would like Marcus to join us. Again I can attest to his skills in bed,” she spoke. “If you don’t, we all forget about this, I put on a shirt and we go to sleep.”

“Okay, this last part of the plan is stupid, Callie.”

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“Marcus, if you’d like I would happily take you into my – our – bed,” Abby told him, after smirking at Callie.

“That’s a yes, Marcus,” Callie translated, pulling him from where he now stood in a t-shirt and pants, and kissing him. He kissed her back in a flash and picked her up, as usual she threw her legs around his waist.

Callie could already feel him through his pants and bucked her hips to him, earning herself a groan out of him.

“He sounds good,” Abby spoke from the bed. “Marcus, can you come closer, please?”

Marcus carried her across the room with ease, with his lips still on hers, with their tongues reconnecting after months apart until they were right in front of the bed and they pulled back to breathe.

“Let me fall, it’s okay,” Callie ordered. “And take off your clothes.” Marcus did as she said and she had barely touched the mattress when Abby straddled her and reached her fingers inside her underwear.

“You’re incredibly wet, love.”

“God, Abby,” Callie moaned as Abby started dancing her fingers across her folds, opening her lips, but never stepping inside. “God… Marcus, do you want to feel it?”

“Can I?” she heard his voice from behind Abby and then she saw Abby nod, Marcus came closer, his lips almost on Abby’s neck, and his body, all of it, touching her, and she seemed to spook a bit, so Callie spoke.

“No, come around,” she requested, between moans. “Lie on the bed.”

He came around and joined her on the bed, and Callie could feel Abby stop to take the view of Marcus fully naked. He still looked good, somewhat better – the beard and the scars made him look softer, and he also seemed to have gained some muscle.

“Abby, you’ve stopped,” Callie complained. “I think you distracted her, Marcus.” Abby blushed at that.

“Callie…”

“You know you’re still the only one dressed,” Callie said, trying to get away from under Abby, to then pull her up, so she could first fully pull her own pants and underwear down, before turning to Abby. “Let me help you,” she said, turning her to Marcus, as she started to pull up her shirt, slowly.

Marcus’ eyes couldn’t leave Abby. And some part of Callie wanted to stop this all thing, how can she see the woman she loves loved by someone else – she spent twenty years like that. Last time, Abby had left and she had never stopped her, and now she was just offering Abby to this man who loved her too.

“Hey, Callie, you okay?” Marcus spoke with a softness in his eyes that she had gotten familiar with for the last few weeks (he was the kind of man she could have loved in the Ark, but had always stayed hidden). He had asked, just as Abby had noticed something off and had turned to her, taking her hands on hers.

“Baby, you okay?”

“I can leave,” Marcus offered, pulling the fur blanket on the foot of the bed over his waist.

“It’s just us, Callie,” Abby whispered. “I love you so much.”

_She really does. She’s not leaving. They’re not leaving. They’re not twenty anymore, this is different._

“No, please don’t leave, Marcus,” she told him, before slowly kissing Abby and pulling back to whisper. “I love you too.”

Then turned Abby, back to Marcus, making sure they were looking at each other.

“Marcus, lose the blanket.”

Callie wanted to do this too. Not just because Abby would love this, but because she wanted this. Marcus had always been good at sex, and that wouldn’t be something she would say no to.

Callie pulled her hands around her waist, unbuttoning her pants and pulling down the zipper and her pants, kissing the back of her thigh as she went down, helping Abby step out of it, and then kissed all the way up again, stopping near her ear, whispering, so only she could hear.

“Do you want to ride him, baby? Do you like how he looks?” she asked. “Do you remember when I talked about him and how large he was?”

Abby gave no response and Callie continued undressing her, pulling her top over her head, leaving her in her bra and underwear.

“You know you’ve always liked cock more than I,” Callie whispered and Abby laughed before kissing her cheek and saying.

“I like your tongue the best.”

“Me too,” Marcus talked from the bed.

“Shut up, Kane,” she complained. “May I take the rest off, Abs?” she whispered to her.

“Please do,” she said out loud. Callie peeked another look at Marcus frozen in bed, eyes stuck to Abby, and he had definitely gotten harder since they started, and then Abby was down to no clothes.

“You look beautiful, Abby,” he told her, stretching his arm as Abby came closer to the bed. “You’re always beautiful but like this… I want to kiss you,” he murmured, looking around, not knowing who to ask for permission.

“Callie, you seem to be in charge,” Abby said, looking behind her at Callie as she crawled on the bed.

“Come here, then,” she said, straddling Marcus’ thighs. “You both want this, right?”

They both nodded, and Abby straddled Marcus, right in front of her and almost touching him.

“Marcus, do you want to touch Abby?”

“More than anything…” he whispered.

“Callie…”

“It’s okay,” she whispered onto Abby’s back, kissing her there as he startled slowing touching her, moving around, trying to get a feel of her and how she reacted to things. Callie could see his face absorbing every sound she made, knowing what to keep doing, and comparing to how it had been in his dreams.

Callie quickly touched Abby for a few moments, wetting her fingers, before reaching it for Marcus’ cock and started preparing him as well.

“Fuck, Callie!!” he groaned.

“Be good, and I’ll do the thing with my finger. Make Abby come before she rides you.”

“Fuck, Marcus, that’s it, right there. Just…” she said, trying to hold onto something, and finding Callie’s leg. “What finger thing?” Abby found a clear moment to ask.

“Don’t…” Marcus let out.

“Later,” Callie answered, letting Marcus tell her if he wanted. It had been years, before he asked or ever mention it. It had been after one of their separations, so she wondered if someone else introduced him to it (not that she had heard he had seen anyone during those seven months she had dated a very nice doctor, friend of Abby’s).

“I’m close, so close,” Abby whispered, now trying to find balance on Marcus’ chest, but Callie with her free hands took her body in hers and held her through the start of her orgasm, before slowly lowering her onto Marcus’ cock.

“Fuck…” he groaned, holding onto the blankets.

“Don’t you dare come from this, Kane? I promised Abby a good fuck.”

“Yes, please just move, Marcus,” Abby said, reaching a hand to hold stronger onto Callie as he took hold of her waist and started thrusting into her. Abby got into the rhythm after a bit, moving in unison, together as one.

Marcus pulled her down for a kiss which Abby obliged with fervor. Callie pulled back from his legs and climbed on the bed next to them, and just watched them, knowing their faces as their orgasm started to build – even if Marcus looked different, even with this he had tried to be in control and not show the effect people had on him.

“Callie…” Abby whispered for in the middle of multiple moans with Marcus’ name, looking for her hand and then pulling it between their bodies.

“Abs, I’m sure Marcus can,” she said, giving the man a pointed look.

“Want… you…”

“Marcus?” Callie asked him and he only gave her more space for her hand to fit in.

“Good… Callie… Marcus, harder, please,” she pleaded, moving her hips with him.

“Fuck, I want to…” Callie could read he wanted to be on top, so she pulled her hand out and left him the go sign not go and he roll them over, earning another yelp from Abby as he entered her from another angle.

“Callie… your hand,” he asked. “On Abby,” he clarified.

“Love, please...” Abby pleaded, turning her face to look at her, kiss the top of her nose and then brought her fingers to her clit again, earning a groan from Marcus when she “accidentally” touched him. And Abby pulled him back for a kiss.

Callie heard the sounds their mouths made as they kissed each other, Abby holding tighter to his long hair, and their moans and groans filled the room, and their bodies touching each other – flesh on flesh.

Then they came together, at the same time, looking at each other’s eyes, riding it out still, as she pulled her hand back and lied back down. Looking as Marcus crashed with his lips on Abby’s shoulder, and she rubbed his back.

Callie closed her eyes as they stayed like that in their own small world, trying not to think of the love on Marcus’ face during this whole ordeal. She still didn’t open her eyes when she felt the bed move.

“Love, you okay?” Abby asked next to her, resting a hand on her belly and offering a kiss to her shoulder.

“Where’s Marcus?” she asked opening her eyes, opening her eyes and finding the bed empty if not for the two of them.

“He wanted to give us a bit of time,” she answered, eyeing the open curtain. “You’re crying,” she said wiping tears from her face.

“I’m not.”

“Callie, what’s going on?”

“Was it good for you?”

“Yes, very. What’s going on?”

“I just… I don’t know. Everything is a mess and I’m afraid.”

“Of what?”

“Marcus loves you.”

“Callie…”

“He does, really does, Abby, and he won’t ever say it, because he still feels like he’s not worthy enough to love you. But he’s now.”

“Callie, I love you,” Abby said, and repeated three more times. “Marcus is my friend, and that still feels weird to say. But I trust him with my life and he’s my partner. But I’m not in love with him. I’m in love with you.”

“But if you…”

“Callie, you do realize this thing was your plan and that we can still ignore this.”

“Don’t. I like watching you two.”

“And what do you want now?”

“Call Marcus back, he must he freezing,” she said, before calling out his name.

“Hi,” he said coming back, running a hand through his hair and with his boxers back on. “How are you doing, Callie?”

“I’m good, thank you, Marcus,” she answered. “Would you like to come back to bed?”

“I can still go.”

“Don’t.”

“So what now?” Abby asked as Marcus climbed on bed, and nobody else answered. “Okay, so can I make a suggestion?”

“Please, Abs. When have you been quiet?”

Marcus laughed at that and earned herself a glare from Abby.

“It’s not like she’s lying.”

“Okay, you know, I was going to be nice to you… Now…”

“Okay, sorry, Abby. Just tell us what you want.”

“It’s about what you want,” Abby spoke before turning to Marcus. “I think Callie would like to know how your beard feels. I want you to make her come with your tongue and hands.”

Marcus didn’t need anything else, and he climbed under the covers and she felt his lips on her inner thighs.

“What about you, Abby?”

“I thought I could just kiss you.”

“I always like that option,” she said before pulling Abby to her lips.

Callie’s concentration moved between Abby’s lips and tongue inside her mouth to Marcus’ fingers and mouth in her. The beard felt very different – sensations she had never felt before – not many men had beards in the Ark and also besides Marcus, not many men had kissed her like this.

“Marcus,” Abby said pulling away, climbing off Callie to go whisper something on his ear, turning her back to Callie, earning herself a slap on the butt.

“God, fuck, Marcus,” Callie yelled, _fuck…_ he had caught her by surprise, she hadn’t expected Marcus to do that. “Do that again.”

“Fuck…”

She was close to coming now. Abby was back there resting next to Callie, with her hand on her breast, as she felt her orgasm built more and more, before coming, more than once, as Marcus kept his lips on her clit.

Her breathing was still irregular when Marcus finally came up to lay next to her, Abby on her other side, still kissing her neck.

“Good?” Abby asked.

“Very good,” she answered as she calmed down and searched for a shirt, so they could go to sleep. “Thank you, Marcus. The beard feels… nice. Even if I’m sure I have beard burns.”

“I’ll kiss it better tomorrow,” Abby promised also taking one of Marcus’ clothes pulling the covers over them.

“Cece,” Marcus whispered as he looked at them, as Abby spooned behind her. “You could have asked for me to…”

“I didn’t know,” she said with a laugh. “Abby showed me, she sure didn’t know that when we were kids.”

“I was a kid back then, Callie. I know my body now after twenty years you learn.”

“Jake taught you?” Marcus guessed.

“He tried it one night,” she whispered, pulling Callie closer. “It caught me by surprise, but it felt… We were actually trying to be quiet, not to wake up Clarke,” she said with a laugh. “We did not succeed.”

“What else did he teach you?” Marcus asked, lying next to them, with his hand on Callie’s hip.

“I… Do you really want to know?” she whispered. “Callie…”

“Hey, Abs, it’s always okay to share anything you want about Jake.”

“I… Thank you,” Abby whispered. “Tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay,” Callie agreed, holding on to her hand. “Good night, Abs, Marcus.”

“Sweet dreams,” Abby said.

“Sleep well,” Marcus said, and Callie pulled him closer to, ending up with her and Abby’s head on his arm, falling asleep to his snores and Abby’s hands on her skin.

* * *

They continued their days together in Polis. Abby continued helping King Roan heal while Marcus kept the peace. Callie was learning how things worked with the grounders, things were different now than what they had been before.

In Ice Nation, they had been fighting, and then they were under Pike’s voice, but now she got to talk to them, Indra had been going with her to meet people from different clans and she was starting to see why Marcus liked this woman so much.

“Pay attention, Cartwig,” she warned her as she told her a new sentence in _Trigedasleng_ to repeat, according to Indra she was a fast learner, but still not enough.

Callie resumed the class at that, trying out the words, before someone else came to see Indra, normally always letting out an insult about Skaikru, but normally calming down when Indra called her something to do with _skaikru fisa_ and she knew it was something about Abby.

The time they worked on together varied, but each day, she learned a few more sentences, that she would train when she came back to their room, normally with Marcus. And later at night he taught her words only for her to whisper against Abby’s skin – they spent their nights kissing Abby’s body and whispering sweet nothings into her skin.

The three of them discovered their bodies under the moonlight, while saving the world during the day. Even Callie got to learn some new things about these people.

There was something different with Abby, when it was a man touching her, it wasn’t better or worse, just different, there was a way she reacted to Marcus’ strength – his body on top of hers or her body taking control of his massive that was different.

And with Marcus, there’s this familiarly and simplicity of being with him, that brought some peace to Callie. That somehow this rite she had been doing for almost 20 years made her feel like the world was not ending in just six months.

In their bed, and tub, and floor – their room – was like the world outside wasn’t real, like they had this little safe bubble for them to be happy. But they knew time was counting down and it wasn’t just the six months.

They would have to go home soon.

* * *

Callie came into the room to find Abby and Marcus already kissing, near the window, with the sky setting between them.

“Abs?” she called out when they pulled away and saw Abby’s face. “What’s going on?”

“King Roan doesn’t need me anymore. There’s nothing else I can do for him.”

“You’re going back to Arkadia.”

“I have to.”

“Marcus?”

“I’m staying here.”

“What about me?”

“I think you should stay with Indra, Callie,” Abby said, painfully, knowing this would mean she was going home alone. “I want you to keep the dialogue with the clans, when Clarke finds a solution, we need them on our side.”

“Marcus…”

“Marcus has the leaders with him and Roan is coming to trust him. He’s good with him, but he’s not good with crowds. Charm is with you, Callie.”

“I charmed you, didn’t I?” he said with a smirk looking at Abby.

“I did most of the heavy lifting,” Callie threw back.

“I charmed you at least, Callie.”

“Shut up. I was young and stupid,” she said with a laugh. “But so, I stay?”

“Yes,” Abby agreed. “Kiss me now, Callie.”

She did as asked, taking Abby in her arms immediately, trying to push her against the wall, but running up to Marcus’ chest instead.

Callie moved her lips to Abby’s neck, leaving marks, so she wouldn’t forget about them.

“Marcus, can you hold Abby?”

He nodded, and Callie pulled Abby up to her waist, with Marcus holding her torso for support.

“Be careful, Callie. Don’t push her to hard against me. I can’t hold her forever.”

“I feel you’re calling me fat,” Abby complained with a laugh.

“It’s not any easier when you keep pushing Abby to me.”

“I can’t help it, when she rubs her ass on my cock.” As it was a request Abby did exactly that, making Marcus moan and almost let her fall.

“We could move to the bed, you know.”

“Tub,” Callie suggested, “It’s our last night with one like this.”

“I’ll get you one if we survive _Praimfaya_ ,” Marcus promised.

“When,” Abby corrected, and Marcus accepted with a nod.

“I’ll go ask for water,” he offered, knowing that none of them would move. He left after laying a kiss on top of Abby’s head.

“Bed?” Callie asked, dropping Abby down, she couldn’t hold her alone.

“Yes, please.” They didn’t take off any clothes off, besides jackets, knowing that someone else was coming into the room. Abby let Callie straddle her and she felt Callie’s lips on her collarbone and then felt her fingers tracing the line where her necklace used to be.

“He will always be part of me,” Abby whispered, answering Callie’s silent question, calling back to Marcus’ words that morning.

“I know, darling. I love you,” she said laying a kiss on her forehead, falling next to her on the bed. They stayed like that for a bit, before she felt Abby’s hand reach under her shirt, before moving to her pants and getting her hand inside her underwear.

“Fuck, Abby…” Callie whispered.

“Shh…” Abby said, before starting moving her fingers. There wasn’t that much space, but Abby knew how to move her fingers.

“Abby,” she whispered as they heard a knock on the door. Abby pulled Callie’s shirt down to cover Abby’s hand and then whispered for them to come in, before Callie could say something else.

“Hi, Alya, thank you,” Abby thanked the maid as Marcus led her to the bathtub. At the same time, Abby’s fingers continued moving, two were inside her now, but only the tip of the finger and then she had moved to just pay attention to her clit.

The maid took a long time filling the water and Callie kept biting her lip, trying to not make some noise, and having now closed her eyes. And Callie couldn’t believe Abby was still keeping the conversation going with Marcus and the chambermaid.

Abby continued circling her clit faster and Callie wasn’t sure how she was holding, she closed her hand around the blankets, her knuckles whitening and her lip bleeding. She was close and keeping all her focus on keeping quiet, that she didn’t hear the door.

“She’s gone, Callie,” Marcus said. That Callie heard and with permission, she opened her mouth and let the feeling take over, before coming into Abby’s fingers.

“I hate you, Abby,” she said as she calmed down and looked at her licking her fingers.

“That really seemed like hate,” Marcus spoke. “Will you join me now?”

Callie looked over now to find him already on the tub, and both women followed, dropping their clothes and climbing inside the bath. Callie taking one side and Abby’s Marcus’ lap.

The warm water surrounding them and the voices next to her as Abby and Marcus went over last-minute Co-Chancellor business, with Callie sometimes giving her opinion, but knowing that this was their job and partnership. Besides the talking and water, the feeling of each other’s hands as they soaped each other, as they washed each other’s hair – there was something excellent and calming about running her hand across Marcus’ now longer hair.

Their hands moved across the three bodies, before moving away to the bed and falling on it between shares of kisses and moans.

* * *

It’s been a few days since Abby left, and Callie and Marcus were still sharing a room, and somehow they had gone back to old patterns. Nothing was like when Abby had been here. They mostly tried to avoid each other until it was time to sleep.

And then there was the sex. It was good. Sex with Marcus always was. But it was different from when Abby was here. It was back like it was before – hot and good, but also cold. She had mentioned it to Abby when Marcus had lent her the walkie, Abby had told her to talk to him about it, maybe to figure out what’s going on.

“Marcus, can we talk?” Callie asked him as they sat on bed, him with his worried look.

“Do you want to go back home to Abby? You should go with her to the Island.”

“No. Okay, yes, but that’s not what I want to talk about.”

“Is it the two months to live? Abby will get the night blood solution.”

“Marcus, it’s not that. I believe in Abby too,” she said, resting a hand on his arm, feeling him tense up. “Do you want me here?”

“What?”

“There’s no problem if you don’t want me here. I can take a room somewhere else – I can bunk with Octavia.”

“She wouldn’t like that.”

“I’m serious, Marcus. I can leave.”

“You just caught me by surprise.”

“It’s not this,” she said eyeing her hand. “When I asked you for this, Abby was also here. I asked for you to join me and Abby, and not just me, and I think us… you don’t like us.”

“Callie, we’ve been doing this for more than two decades.”

“I know. But when you were with Abby, it was different… and now it’s back to the old us again and I was wondering if you’re okay. And if you want me to leave, I will.”

“I don’t want you to leave,” he admitted immediately. “I really don’t. I like you and the company, I always did, even if I never admitted.”

“So what’s going on?”

“I… I don’t know… I don’t know how to say it.”

“I’m here,” she said, turning to him.

“Sex was different with Abby or with you when she was here. It felt good, really good, like it never felt before.”

“Ohhh…”

“And I don’t know, and I was thinking to the times before and it didn’t. It didn’t come close to anyone else, maybe you were the closest to feeling something, but Abby…”

“It’s because you love Abby, Marcus,” she said with a sweet smile on her face and scratching his beard.

“I shouldn’t…”

“But you do, and you and Abby and I are together in this. It’s okay,” she said softly kissing his lips. “Is this okay?”

“Yes. I like kissing you.”

“But you don’t need to do anything else, okay? We don’t need to.”

“You don’t mind, Callie, you sure?”

“I really don’t. And you know if I really need an orgasm, I can get myself off really well.” Marcus laughed at that, and pulled in for another kiss.

“Thank you, Callie,” he told her, as she sat on his lap. “For everything.”

“This is us, both of us. We make decisions together, we enjoy ourselves together.”

“Thanks, Callie.”

Marcus pulled her in for a kiss again, and Callie smiled, finding the warm of the Marcus she had shared with Abby, once again.

* * *

“Can you explain me what’s happening now?” Callie asked as Indra stopped the horse.

“We’re only stopping for a few moments,” Indra spoke.

“Where are you taking me? And why?”

“The alliance is over,” she spoke. “I need to warn my people. _Azgeda_ is coming for us and for your people.”

“I need to tell mine.”

“My people come first, Callie.”

“Where’s Marcus? And Octavia?”

“They took Kane.”

“What?!”

“They took him and they also have Octavia’s brother. Octavia hopefully got away – I couldn’t get to her.”

“You saved me…”

“You were close enough. It’s the least I can do for Kane and Abby.”

“Thank you.”

“We should get going,” she said as their horse finished drinking the water. Indra mounted him again, before helping Callie up again, who then threw her arms around her and held tightly as they continued to ride across the forest.

Callie climbed off the horse when they finally got to her village. She had never seen a grounder village before, Polis had been everything she knew, not this. It was smaller, not the spectacular looks of the city, but it felt like home – it was this Marcus and Abby had imagined for Arkadia.

Indra made an announcement in _trigedasleng_ , Callie couldn’t understand a thing but her own name. _Kali kom Skaikru_.

“You’re safe with me. Under my protection.”

But people didn’t seem to agree, not trusting Callie as she walked through the village, some even spitting onto the floor. She looked around as they walked and she couldn’t help but notice the Lincoln statue that she had often seen in books about the old American government.

“The statue… Abraham Lincoln.”

“This was Lincoln’s home, before Pike killed him.”

“I’m sorry. He was a good man.”

“No time for that, we need to prepare our defenses if _Azgeda_ is going to attack.”

“What can I do to help?”

“You sit on meetings with us. You won’t understand, but don’t move away from me.”

“I’m not safe.”

“You’re under my protection, they would be stupid to attack – it would mean their death.”

“But you think someone may still try.”

“ _Skaikru_ are not our favorite people.”

 As the day went along, Callie realized how true it was, everyone questioned her presence in meetings, even when it was obvious she couldn’t understand much of what was said. People cursed her in _trigedasleng_ , and sometimes in English – but that was the language of the warriors and most of them had been killed in the massacre.

They prepared defenses around the camp, keeping people on the look out at all times, as they waited for something to happen, to change. Callie stayed by the fire as the night fell and she was offered some food.

Nobody sat next to her and almost no one was bothering her. They were talking about her for sure, but they were no longer approaching her directly, at least not until the end of the night. Callie had been getting tired and she was just waiting for Indra who had just gone for a last round of the guards, before retiring to her house, where she would be staying.

It was a large guy, he wasn’t familiar or anything, but he came up to her yelling in _trigedasleng_ , and she didn’t know how to answer or even understand him, but the sentiment was clear.

“Leave her alone,” Indra yelled coming closer, with her hand on her sword, he answered her immediately in their language again, most she couldn’t make out, all but a few like _hisa_ – Abby – or _Wanheda_ – Clarke, and then even Lincoln’s name and that seemed to calm the man.

“Lincoln?” she asked Indra when he left.

“They were close.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save him. I really am.”

“I know you are. Lincoln was the first to trust your people, you know. Your people should have shown him the same respect in turn.”

“I know I failed, but we need to do better next time.”

Indra didn’t answer and just started moving and Callie took it as a hint to follow her. Indra’s house was small, near where she had held her meetings, and she led her to a second bed, neatly made that seemed to not have been slept on in years.

“It was Gaia’s.”

“Thank you.”

Callie got ready for bed, finishing up by taking of her shirt and jacket until she was in her tank top and then pulled her pants off and climbed into bed. Indra did the same, taking off all her clothes and armor, and even in the dark Callie could see the multiple scars and tattoos over her body, and completely naked she got into her own bed.

It was strange to sleep in this bed she didn’t know, in an environment she didn’t know, but Callie had slept in worse places since she landed, and she fell asleep eventually.

* * *

 

Callie was still worried about her people. She knew nothing of what was happening, but Indra still insisted she went back to Polis with her.

It had started three days ago, when one of the riders came back, with the news that Ice Nation was moving against Arkadia. Callie had wanted to go there, but Indra stopped her and then the next time there was a large explosion and smoke coming from where Arkadia was.

With Trikru, things were different, with the news that King Roan had left Polis, Indra rallied her warriors and they were moving to the city now. Callie still riding behind Indra and under her protection – somehow she wondered if she was a hostage as well (even if she knew Indra wouldn’t hurt her).

So the plan was to take over Polis. Callie was asked to wait at the side and she looked on as the attack started. The city was mostly empty and Trikru took it easily, having only to fight children and elderly – they killed everyone who opposed, and it stopped Callie on her feet seeing the dead bodies of children.

“Why did you have kill them?” Callie asked when she had Indra alone.

“I didn’t take them all out. We had to take the city.”

“Why? It will make no difference in a few weeks.”

“It’s our way.”

“It’s not the right one.”

“Callie, you shouldn’t question me.”

“You saw, I waited until we were alone. You needed to listen to this.”

“And you need to understand this reality.”

The situation turned dire as the days went on, since Ice Nation turned back around, led by Echo, Azgeda warriors invaded the city and took it violently.

Indra had told her to stay in the tower, she did, drifting to the room she had shared with Abby and Marcus when they had been here, she pulled a cover around her and sat in the balcony, both on lookout for someone coming to the tower – Indra had told her where the tunnels were – and to see the destruction.

Polis was on fire. The city Abby had described to her with a glint in her eyes, late at night, the way she wished for the same future for Arkadia was gone… The City of Light had killed that magic, but any rebuilding that had been done in between was over now.

Even with the dark sky she could see the blood painting the ground and death looked all the same, either Trikru or Azgeda.

“I think Azgeda warriors have abandoned troops,” Indra told her coming to the room – she was the only person who knew where she was. They still weren’t sure somebody wouldn’t try to just kill her for being Skaikru. “Echo is fighting with less people than I anticipated, and I would have heard if your people massacred another army.”

“You’re winning then?”

“Your people massacred our best warriors,” she answered, as only a fact, before moving on to another subject. “I need you to do something for me.”

“Why? What?”

“Maybe you can go in without calling to anyone’s attention, and you’re not useful to fight. And you will want this to work.”

“Okay, tell me.”

“Kane gave me radio, that’s how he contacted me. It will still probably be in the Trikru embassy. Nobody would find it useful, and hopefully it wasn’t destroyed in the run against tech.”

“I can go,” she said standing up.

“Not now. Tomorrow, while we fight. There probably won’t be many attacks tonight.”

“Why not go now then?”

“It’s safe if we are in the same place. The tower is under protection. They have the Temple – Gaia is arguing we take it back.”

“It’s important to her.”

“Not more than the Tower.”

Callie still didn’t really understand this politics, after all they would all be dead soon – the end of the world came for all.

“I’ll get you tomorrow, when you’re ready to go and see the safer route.”

Indra left her alone again, and Callie moved back to the balcony – it was cold so high and outside, but she covered herself with blankets and furs, not wanting to go back to that bed, that held too many memories of the woman she loved. And she fell asleep out there, knowing it wasn’t any good for her, and when risen awake by the cold mid-night, pulled herself up and found a place for her on the chair in the corner of the room, still close to the window.

Indra woke her up next morning. The sun was still rising when she came in.

“Get ready.” Callie did as ordered, cleaning herself on some of the water that been saved from the last rain and put on some of the clothes Indra had left her – by now she was getting used to this grounder clothes, even if they were a bit too heavy… but maybe armor would be good today.

Callie moved to the first floor at that where Indra was still in a meeting and people once again complained when she came in.

“There’s food. I’ll be with you soon.” Callie took some berries and then followed Indra as they walked out. “You remember where the embassy is?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, you keep down. Things have mostly been pushed out of the way, so you’ll be able to hide.”

“And inside?”

“They moved everything around – you’ll need to look.”

“I will. I will find it. I want to talk to Marcus.”

“I’ll get you Kane on the radio.”

“Right. Thanks.”

Callie started moving then, there was light outside now. And she crouched down behind everything that had been thrown again the buildings – Indra had been right about that. She could feel her heart beat faster as people walked and fought in the distance.

She paused every few moments and waited quietly for something to change and for her to be able to safely move, and then she finally reached the embassy – the sun high on the sky by then. Indra hadn’t been lying the place had been ransacked, everything was turned upside down, but what shocked her were the dead bodies. They had been there since Callie had left Polis and she could feel the smell now.

Callie tried not to think about it, but the smell was too intense as she moved, so she pulled a scrap out of her all outfit and covered her mouth and nose with it, before starting the search. She recognized the table Marcus had been using and went there first – searching all of the drawers and there was nothing there, either his radio or Indra’s.

She moved to the other rooms, turning every thing in the embassy, and she still couldn’t find it and she knew there was only one other thing she could think of. It had been about an hour, when she searched the first body.

The smell was overwhelming. And it wasn’t only that, but also the animals crawling on the bodies, but she knew it was her chance to talk to her people, to know if they were okay. The last thing she had heard from the scouts was that Arkadia had been burned.

Callie closed her eyes and searched the second body. It felt like stepping past someone’s privacy and it was something new, in the Ark every body was floated (and since they arrived they had buried or burned their dead, like Pike had remembered from his knowledge of the past) – a decomposing body wasn’t something she was used to.

There were about twenty bodies in the room and she was going slowly, and she was holding off throwing up. Luckily she found it, in the seventh body – it would have been smart to check him first, after all he had been close to the door that led to Indra’s war room.

Callie wanted to try it, but she decided to hold off, and wait to get to Indra – she could wait. She left the embassy and started to redo her previous steps, and then rain started to fall.

Rain wouldn’t stop Callie, she was close and hopefully it would slow down the war going around her. At least that was until water fell on her and she felt it burn.

_Black Rain._

Black rain was here. She hid in the closest space, under a piece of broken metal abandoned on the street. She knew this wasn’t safe enough to hide as she heard the acid eat its way through the metal.

But the worst were the screams. People didn’t know what was happening – _Praimfaya_ was not even public knowledge yet – but they knew their skin was burning like never before. Callie wanted to step out and help, but there was nothing she could do here, but hear people yell in agony as they burned and drowned to death, while other run to find cover, including on her direction, and she knew she had to move, noticing the white paint on their faces (not that she would be safe with the other side either).

Callie surfaced her surroundings, and there was a building near by, the door was closed, but hopefully not locked. So on the spur of the moment she got up and pushed forward, pulling the metal over her head and running to the door, luckily to pushes and she was in.

The metal down and the door locked, she could only feel the tip of her fingers burning – there was no water in sight to cool them, so she resorted to blew on them and hope the small and few burns wouldn’t have any lasting effect. Once again, she took the top floor and sat by the window, giving her a view of the outside and to see if anyone came inside, and keeping her hidden for any lookouts still outside.

But once again, death was all she saw, and this time coming from above. But people were still fighting, this time for shelter, and she couldn’t be sure, but she thought people were fighting their own clans. So if the rain didn’t kill them, a sword to the heart will.

Callie waited, but it was still dark outside, and she was getting more scared and nervous here alone, there had been noises downstairs, but they never lasted very long – most times they would leave again, after a few moments. She couldn’t understand why if they were safe here, but she imagined they felt like dead weight staying put in the same place.

So now with the dark outside and the raining falling, Callie was getting tired of waiting alone, so once again she turned to the radio and made the call. She hadn’t used this particular radio before, but she had handled communications back in the Ark and she was well versed with multiple type of radios.

She had been told it was three clicks – that was the sign.

She waited after that and it felt like a never ending wait, and there was noise.

“Indra…”

“No, it’s me.”

“Callie?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re alive,” she could hear the relief in his voice.

“I am. You’re okay too?”

“I am.”

“And--”

“Abby is okay too. I was talking to her, wait a moment, I can get her.”

“Can I talk to her?”

“That radio only works with Arkadia.”

“And she’s still in the Island.”

“Yes, but I can tell her what you say.”

“I just want to know she’s okay and that I love her.”

Marcus disappeared from the call at that, and he came back with words of love from Abby, and it was weird to hear them in his voice – she just wanted to hear her.

“How is she?”

“She said she’s good.”

“Marcus… you know Abby… how does she sound?”

“Tired, broken, defeated. She needs you.”

“I should have gone with her.”

“I was going to send you,” he said. “Wait, she’s calling again.”

“She wishes she could talk with you.”

“I wish the same.”

“Where are you, Callie?”

“In Polis, Triku and Azgeda are fighting for it.”

“Are you safe?”

“For now.”

“How are things in Arkadia?” Marcus didn’t answer immediately, and not even after a few moments, but it gave her the answer, just as well as the screams in the back. Callie was about to ask him about it when she heard someone downstairs – she had been too distracted to see them come into the building.

“There’s someone here. I need to go.”

“Callie…” It was the last thing he heard, before she turned off the radio.

She stayed in silence after that, hugging the radio close, knowing it was her one connection to Marcus and Abby. But this time the people downstairs didn’t leave, and the rain continued falling outside, Callie stayed as quiet as she could, and even as the others fell asleep and her stomach growled, she did nothing but stay, hoping the rain would clear.

* * *

“Gaia, these men need your help,” was the first thing Callie heard when Indra came into the room. And she suspected who these men were, she had gotten a notice from Marcus, that he was coming into the city.

“Marcus,” Callie called, before Gaia could.

“Callie,” Marcus greeted her, pulling her for a hug, now that they were both in the same building. She had heard from him on the walkie-talkie, but it was different to see him in person – living and breathing. She needed to see Abby.

“You’re okay?” he whispered.

“I am. Not really my idea of a good time, spending it in the middle of a war, but I’m okay.”

“She’s strong,” Indra spoke. “A warrior.”

Marcus looked worried at the words, so she rose her hand to his cheek to try and calm him.

“Abby will worry about my injuries when she comes home. I don’t need you to worry too.”

“But I do,” he answered, and she smiled back to his honesty.

“Kane, you needed to see my daughter.” Marcus went back to business mode at that, but Thelonious led the conversation.

Callie wasn’t sure of what was happening – something else about the grounder religion. Gaia had tried to explain the flame and the Commanders to her, but none seemed to make much sense to her; after all religions had been outlawed in the Ark, the cult of the Eden tree had been the closest to it and her parents had never believed – everything she knew about it was from Vera and Marcus, back when he despised showing any sense of weakness.

And then she heard the word “bunker” and she knew why they were here, that could be the solution to every problem of theirs – a safe place to ride out _Praimfaya_.

“It’s in the Temple, controlled by Azgeda,” Indra continued. “As are the tunnels.” Callie knew they would have to fight again, and she hated the idea of being in danger again, but Marcus offered a diplomatic solution.

“Indra,” he started. “Like it or not… Azgeda is our ally. We have the royal seal. Nobody has to die.”

“Wait… Marcus, last time I heard Ice Nation was marching against you.”

“We allied.”

“How? Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Callie asked.

“I… You and Abby…” She sent him a look to stop that train of thought. “You knew Roan was with her.”

“He and Clarke are close. I didn’t know you were allies.”

“Indra knew as well.”

“I did,” she said, looking at Callie, and by now she was familiar with her looks, to know she wasn’t saying anything else or apologize. “And you’re assuming they will honor the seal,” she picked up the conversation back again, turning to Marcus. “The closer we get to _Praimfaya_ , the less alliances seem to mean. How much faith do you have in yours?” She left with those words.

“I think she’s right,” Callie said, reaching Marcus. “I’ve seen what they are capable of. I’m not sure they will respect the alliance – some of them don’t even seem that faithful to the King either.”

“I can’t… I need to try, Callie.”

“I know, Marcus,” she said – this was the new Marcus and she had to live with it. She followed him as he exited the room and walked in the direction of the Temple, their heads covered, trying to pass by discreetly.

Marcus announced himself to the Ice Nation people, and asked for passage, and he had actually convinced him, and then Indra got the gun and shot, and Marcus’ face was only shock. And he was about to yell.

“Don’t,” she pleaded taking a hand to his arm.

“They were letting up pass!”

“Don’t,” Callie repeated, but Indra still spoke.

“If there’s a bunker there, Azgeda will never see the inside.”

“Come on, Marcus,” Callie asked, taking his hand, trying to make him follow Indra.

“Come on, Marcus,” Thelonious added. “It’s not our war.”

“Roan will think we did this,” the Green boy said, before walking away.

“I trusted her, Callie.”

“You still can. Things haven’t been easy in the city.”

“I’m sorry I left you behind.”

“You didn’t leave me behind. You were taken and Indra saved my life. For you.”

“I still can’t…”

“Let’s go,” she said pulling on him again, but not being able to do anything to stop him from now looking at the dead bodies he blamed himself for, when they walk into the Temple, the others had already gathered around.

She stayed back with Marcus, as they observed Thelonious move – he had always been good with puzzles – he and Jake had loved those. And really this mystery was nothing but another puzzle. They looked on, expecting something to happen and she felt Marcus squeeze her hand as Thelonious failed.

The failure was a roadblock on their advancements, especially as they knew Echo would send more soldiers their way. The solution was for Indra and her guards to stop them.

“Give her the guns, Marcus. We need help,” she whispered to him, and that plus Thelonious made him give her the gun.

“What now?” he asked her after Indra left.

“We wait,” she said. “Thelonious will figure it out.”

Marcus stayed with her, waiting, wanting to help, but not sure what to do. He squeezed her hand and moved to try and open the door with force.

“It won’t work like that, Marcus. It’s a puzzle. Brute force won’t do.”

“I have to do something, Callie. I can’t stand here and do nothing,” he said, before trying again. He tried until the noise outside was closer.

“I’m sorry but we have to go. You should have brought more guns,” Indra told them, coming into the room.

“Move your army into position.”

“I’ll not give up the Tower for the Temple, and a door you cannot open.”

“Thelonious, we can come back later.” But Thelonious wasn’t convinced, and neither was Monty Green, Callie was ready to go – she knew what waited them when the Ice Nation warriors arrived. And then the boy remembered something.

“From the Ashes, We Will Rise.”

It sparked something in his mind and then the fire turned pink and they had a key to unlock the door.

None of them could really believe what they were seeing, but one by one they entered the bunker, down narrow stairs, to much larger ones around an open space. It was safe, they had found a safe place at last.

“It’s large,” Indra commented.

“It will be big enough for all of us to live,” Marcus spoke. “Indra, we can still honor our agreement with Ice Nation.”

“Trikru won’t share the bunker with Azgeda.”

“They are our allies.”

“Not anymore, Kane. Not if you want to keep this bunker.”

“Indra,” Callie spoke.

“Callie, I protected you as long as I could. You’re back with Kane, it’s his responsibility to choose what to do.”

“Marcus…” Callie turned to him, pulling him a bit away. “It’s Trikru – they found it with us. And we owe it to Lincoln.”

“Callie…”

“I let his people be chipped. I can save them now.”

“Ice Nation won’t be happy.”

“We’ll all be inside by then.”

“We’ll share the bunker, Indra.” She shook his hand at that, before moving into another subject.

“We can hold out the night here. They will be entering the Temple soon.”

“I closed it,” Monty spoke. “I’m going to help Jaha look in the bunker.”

“Okay,” Marcus answered to that. “Roan. Roan gets to come, Indra. One man.”

“He won’t agree to that, Kane.”

“He will if he wants to survive.”

“He won’t live while his people die – it’s not the way of a good leader,” said Indra. “But Roan can stay and live, as long as he doesn’t attack any Trikru men.”

“Agreed.”

Indra and Gaia turned their backs at that, and they were left alone.

“Do you need to join Thelonious and Hannah’s kid?”

“No. I think Thelonious will be okay. Do you want to find a room?”

“Yes, I’m tired.”

They didn’t stop by the first room they saw, but instead took the chance to explore part of the building, most of the bedrooms seemed to be dormitory style, much like the guard rooms back in the Ark. After walking around, they finally found a simple room with a double bed, and they closed themselves in it, locking the door.

And the moment that was done, Marcus had her against the door and was kissing her lips – Callie appreciated the enthusiasm and rose her legs to tie around him.

“What’s going on?” she said when they pulled back. She didn’t mind the kissing, and she knew Marcus enjoy it too, but it still felt too quick.

“You’re alive. I was so scared, I had lost you.”

“We talked a few days ago.”

“I feared I had lost you when you weren’t thrown in jail with us and Echo told us Octavia was dead. I couldn’t even tell Abby… how could I tell her that I was the reason someone else she loves is dead…”

“She doesn’t blame you for Jake, Marcus.”

“She does, Callie.”

“She did, maybe, when we were up there. You were an easy target. She doesn’t blame you now.” Marcus didn’t answer that.

“Do you want to talk to her?”

“I…”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He moved from the wall and her body then, to the bed, both finding comfortable positions, against the headboard as he made the connection with the walkie-talkie.

“Abby,” he whispered to the radio. “Are you there, Abby?”

“Yes.” Her voice sounded weak and raspy and she knew she had been crying.

“Darling, what’s wrong?” Callie asked immediately, taking the radio from him.

“Callie… Callie…” she whispered. “Is it real? Or is--"

“It’s real, I’m here, love.”

“Callie, I can’t do this anymore… I can’t…”

“Shh… Abs, it’s okay. We’re okay,” murmured Callie, lying down on the bed, as Marcus got up to give her some sense of privacy.

“Clarke injected herself with the nightblood solution.”

“Abby…”

“I destroyed the machine… I couldn’t…” Abby’s cries were coming stronger and more often now, and Callie just wanted to be able to hold her.

“Abs, breathe… Clarke is okay – she’s safe.”

Abby’s words no longer made any sense, with the cries and pain and fear all over each other coming through the small radio. And then the words “I failed”.

“You didn’t, Abby,” she said, signaling Marcus to come back. “Marcus found a bunker.”

“Thelonious was involved,” he said, sitting down next to her. “We found a bunker. It’s large – it probably has a medical bay.”

Abby calmed herself down as Callie told her the truth.

“I didn’t… I didn’t doom everyone…”

“Abby…”

“I killed a man for nothing…” she whispered, and Callie shared a look with Marcus.

“You did what you had to do,” Marcus spoke. “We’ll find our humanity now.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“You will,” Callie said. “I love you – I will be here for you, always.”

“I’m so scared, Cal…”

“You will be here soon.”

“You should leave tomorrow,” Marcus said, before adding, “There’s something else. Indra was with us.”

“Trikru gets the bunker – them and Ice Nation?”

“She won’t share, Abs.”

“I got her to let Roan in.”

“Marcus…”

“I know, Abby, but I can’t convince her.”

“Clarke won’t like it – we had an agreement with him.”

“Don’t tell her,” Callie suggested. “Not now.”

“Callie…”

“Wait for the last moment. It’s tomorrow, Abby,” she said. “Don’t go talk to her now. You all have had a long day.”

“Okay… I’ll talk with her tomorrow.”

“Good.”

“You should sleep, Abby.”

“Stay here. On the radio.”

“I will. We will,” Callie promised.

“Will you sleep too?” Abby asked, as she could hear her move around on her side of the call.

“I think Marcus is tired. And I could try and fall asleep. Tomorrow won’t be easy.”

“Under the covers,” Marcus suggested as he took of his shoes, pants and jacket, before asking for permission to take off her pants too, and then climbing on the bed with her.

“You’re both there?”

“Yeah, Abs. The radio is in the middle of the bed.”

“We’re here.”

“Thank you,” she said with a whisper. Callie could still hear some wisps of crying, and then the breathing calmed down, and she could hear her little snores – a sign that she was a sleep. And then the louder snores from Marcus as well, which had definitely helped calm Abby as well.

Callie still wasn’t able to sleep, so she got up, walking up to the bathroom, dropping the rest of her clothes, and stepping into the hot water. She hadn’t had a shower like that in a long time, in a private bathroom, without anyone around. For the few days she had shared Abby’s Chancellor quarters, she had got to enjoy a private shower (but they had taken advantage of that fact and never truly showered alone) and after that there was only the communal showers.

The warm water felt good on her skin and it felt nice to slowly being able to clean all the grim and dirt on her body. Since the black rain, there wasn’t even clean water in the city to clean themselves – every drop when to consumption. Finally feeling her body and hair clean, she was in no mood to put her dirty clothes back on, so she stepped back into the room naked, climbing onto bed with Marcus, and letting herself fall asleep to these two familiar pairs of snores.

* * *

The next day had been a mess. It started rather normally. Marcus left that morning, with a simple peck on her lips, after they talked to Abby that morning again – she was feeling a bit better after some sleep, but Callie knew she was still heartbroken over her actions… Maybe it would be time to tell her about those months in Ice Nation and what she had to do there.

The images of the dead boy flashed in front of her. They hadn’t in a long time.

It still broke her heart what she had to do, but Bryan was still alive – it was worth it when she saw him reunite with Miller, and hopefully he ended up not following Pike blindly in the end. The time after it happened the guilt almost consumed, but it wasn’t like she could let herself go down like that – Hal and Kara had made sure she was back on her feet.

Thelonious had left to go get them this morning too, with the rest of their people. Callie had stayed back alone, she had been down in the bunker, looking around, finding herself in medical soon after, looking at the things that look similar – some instruments were exactly like the ones in the Ark, especially in the teaching room. She remembered helping Abby sneak into those, so she could train at night when they were teenagers.

Callie couldn’t wait until Abby saw these things again, to be taken to the simpler times of their childhood… Callie wouldn’t want to change the past, she would never take Jake and Clarke away from Abby, and their friendship had still been everything during those decades, but… Callie was just happy they had found each other again.

She knew she couldn’t keep going down memory lane, so made the walk to the top of the bunker, knowing she should be outside helping Indra and her people settling in, after all they all had gotten used to her, during the weeks as their leader’s companion.

Callie ran into the familiar faces she knew from Trikru, all moving around the bunker and temple, and she had just stepped out when she heard a voice.

“You need to come with me.” The face was familiar, even if she couldn’t place the name, but she wasn’t Trikru or any of the allies – she shouldn’t have been there – but at least she looked alone.

“Why?”

“I have my orders.”

“Whose?”

“Take her,” was her next words, and two men came in her direction and the white pain on their faces gave them away as Ice Nation. Callie knew who she was now, that was King Roan’s second.

Callie was tied up and taken away, once again, fear took over her body, but she was only carried away back into the tower and thrown into an empty cell. Callie waited there most of the day in silence, and she waited the silence and the anticipation. The unknown of what happening outside.

She couldn’t tell you how long had it been since Marcus had left to go get Abby that morning, and she didn’t know what _Azgeda_ had planned for them. They were ruthless to kill them on the spot, she knew that, _how many hadn’t they killed before? What if they killed Abby now, after she fought Pike not to kill them all?_

Callie knew she wasn’t dead. She would feel it. She saw how Abby’s heart broke, how it lost a piece when Jake was gone, Callie would know, she would feel the same thing if Abby was gone now (and she would feel it for Marcus too).

It was already dark when she finally heard some noises again, and then it was followed by people being thrown into the jail cell.

“Abby!!” she exclaimed, seeing her come in and trying to get up.

“Stand back,” Roan’s second ordered, as everyone came into the room, she saw Jackson and Nate, before her eyes catching a look of Abby again.

Luckily they tied Abby to the wall next to her.

“Where’s Clarke?”

“The King wants to see her.”

“No, I can talk with him. I made the deal.”

“He will deal with you later, Kane,” she said, kicking him on the leg, before they all left alone in the cell.

“Abby…” Callie whispered, pulling her to her arms. “Shhh… Clarke is okay. King Roan won’t hurt her.”

“I know… but it wasn’t supposed to be like this. Nothing was supposed to be like this.”

“It’s going to be okay, darling,” Callie said, pulling back from her, looking up to her brown eyes, and moving her disheveled hair away from them.

“I missed you,” Abby said, pulling her lips to hers, it started slow and soft, both taking comfort on the fact that they were both alive now, and together. The kiss grew more heated as time went along, Callie’s hand deep on her hair pulling her close to her, the closest possible… until they heard someone clear their throat.

They pulled back to see Nate looking at them with a smug look, while Jackson, Costa and Marcus looked away.

“Just a reminder that other people are here.”

“We know,” Callie said, laying another quick kiss on Abby’s cheek. “So behave, Nate.” The kid laughed at that and turned back to Jackson, and continued talking with him.

“Are you okay?” Abby asked her, turning to her, and starting to pull on her clothes.

“Are you?”

“I was in the lab safe. You were out here…” Abby said, trying to find something wrong with her. “Are you okay? Please just tell me about it, distract me.”

“Marcus,” she called, instead of answering. “He missed you,” she whispered to Abby.

Marcus hadn’t been tied as close to her as Abby, but the chain was long enough, for him to reach them, and his eyes immediately focused on Abby’s, worry filled them, as he tentatively wondered what he could do. His hand wanting to reach for her safe, but stopping himself, until Callie murmured his name again and squeezed his shoulder.

Marcus reached his hand for her cheek, no words were shared, but she knew Abby could see the love there, and before anything else, they were reaching for each other’s lips. This time having learned the lesson, not letting it go as far, but it didn’t stop everyone from looking.

“I’m glad you’re well,” Marcus whispered pulling back. “You too, Cal,” he said, squeezing her leg.

“You saw me last night, Marcus,” she said with a laugh.

“Tell me about it,” Abby asked. “Tell me something,” she pleaded.

Marcus found a somewhat comfortable seat against the wall, with his chain pulled to the maximum, and Abby and Callie moved closer to him. Abby still with her head on her shoulder, her free hand on Callie’s, and between her legs, while Abby’s other hand, rested on Marcus’ leg.

Callie didn’t want to talk about last night. She didn’t want to remember how broken Abby sounded on the radio last night, how that was all Callie could dream of that night. So she brought something else, and decided to tell the story of how she and Marcus got so drunk the night he made the Council.

“How did you not tell me this story before?” Abby asked her, as the story got along, finding herself distracted and more comfortable between them, pulling herself between them, throwing her legs across Marcus’, and resting herself against Callie’s chest.

“Marcus asked me not to. He didn’t want people to know he was drinking when moonshine is illegal.”

“We had drunk together, Marcus.” Abby laughed at that.

“I wasn’t in a Council before. And we-- you know.”

“You two were already fighting all the time, and he didn’t want to give you ammunition.”

“How much didn’t you tell me, Callie? Because Marcus was behaving like a stubborn child.”

“Really I was the stubborn one?!” Marcus said with a laugh, he would have dared to do up there, and clapped Abby’s leg.

“Yes, you were,” she argued.

“Just me, Abby?!”

“Yes, just you,” she said, with a smirk. “Right, love?” she asked, looking up to Callie.

“Of course, Abs, you’re not stubborn at all.”

“Good. Continue with the story.”

Callie and Marcus finished the story at that, Abby listened with interest her mind going further way, until the cell door opened again.

“Clarke!!” Abby exclaimed, pulling herself up, and throwing her arms around her daughter, before they pulled her away and got her on the other side of the room.

“No,” Marcus argued. “She can take my place.”

“ _No, she can’t_ ,” the guard answered in _trigedasleng_ , before leaving.

“Mom, it’s okay. I should probably just sleep, tomorrow won’t be easy.”

“What happened?”

“Roan and I reached an agreement.”

“Clarke…”

“I’m tired, Mom. Good night,” she said, before turning to her side, and Callie noticed that almost everybody else in the room was asleep too, including Nate and Jackson sleeping next to each other – she would have to ask Abby about that.

“Marcus, where are you going?” Abby asked, and Callie noticed that he was moving away.

“Clarke and…”

“You’re staying with us,” she said.

“Abs, lay down, with your head on my lap. You will be more comfortable.”

“Callie, you’re the one who spent the last weeks outside.”

“I slept on a real bad last night.”

“So did I.”

“Abby, don’t argue.”

“See, stubborn,” Marcus said with a laugh, as Abby settled in, contradicted. And then he offered his arm to Callie, so she could rest against the crook of his hair and his head on hers. The three of them fell asleep like that, together, and as safe as they could be in a humid prison cell.

And she did feel safe, the noise was comforting instead of terrifying, knowing those two would be around her, she was only awoken next morning when someone, Gaia, came into the cell, waking up everyone, throwing some food in, before asking for Clarke.

“Gaia,” Callie called out, while Abby was still trying to make her daughter look at her.

“Clarke, what’s going on? Where are you going?”

“I’m saving us, Mom,” she said, before taking off.

“That’s Clarke…” Nate murmured.

“What’s she doing?” Abby asked, still standing and turning to them.

“I’m sure she has a plan,” Marcus spoke.

“We should be involved. You should be involved. You’re the Chancellor, Marcus.”

“I trust your daughter, Abby. She has a good head on her shoulders.”

“She shouldn’t make decisions alone.”

“Come here,” Callie said, asking her to sit again, realizing she was pulling on her chain and bruising her wrist. “If Gaia is involved, Indra is too, they would have a good plan.”

“It’s still probably connected with King Roan,” she told them. “I should be with her,” she said, and relenting to seat next to her. It ended up being true, when _Azgeda_ came into the cell as well, Echo taking her way, while nobody answered any of her questions.

Callie once again was made to wait, terrified of what was going to happen, of what was happening outside, Marcus tried to calm her down, but he definitely wasn’t as good at it as Abby was. Once again hours of waiting went along, until they came back to the cell.

Abby and Clarke were alone, with the key in hand.

“What happened?” Callie asked.

“A final Conclave,” Abby answered, opening the door, and walking up to her. “I had to agree in your name, Marcus, every clan agreed to it.”

“What does that mean?”

“Twelve fighters, one for each clan. Last one standing gets the bunker.”

“The bunker is enough for at least 1200 people,” Callie said.

“I know, but they won’t share.”

“I will fight,” Marcus offered, before anything else could be said.

“What?! No,” Abby answered, finishing with his chains, before giving Clarke the key.

“I’m one of the most experienced members of the guard,” he said. “I’m our leader, I represent us.”

“You shouldn’t go for that reason.”

“You’ll lead them, Abby. I believe in you,” he told her, stepping closer and taking her face on his arms.

“You can’t use fire arms.”

“It needs to be me, Abby. I’m not sending one of the kids, who have less training than I do. And I’m not sending someone with a family,” he whispered, looking at Nate.

“You will die.”

“ _Trikru_ will win, I’ll make sure, and you can reach an agreement with them.”

“You’re the one who knows her, Marcus.”

“Callie knows her.”

“Marcus….”

“Abby, give me a better option.”

That quieted Abby, they knew he was the best option. Nobody from _skaikru_ would be ready to fight grounders, at least Marcus had trained with Lincoln, before Pike murdered him. (There was someone who could fight, but they weren’t even sure where she was or what _kru_ she belonged to… And Marcus would never ask her to fight).

“Mom, we need to go,” Clarke called from outside the cell, only the three of them still inside. The others already gone too, only Abby’s daughter waiting outside. “We need to go get the bunker ready.”

“And me, Clarke?”

“You should go up there, Kane.”

“I will.”

“The fight is only tomorrow, but you should prepare yourself.”

Marcus nodded at that, moving away from them, before Callie reached for his arm, touching his elbow, and he turned to her, his eyes afraid.

“Come to us tonight,” she pleaded. “Come to our bed, tonight.” She rose herself to the tips of her feet and pulled his mouth down to hers, a softer kiss than the one he shared with Abby moments after, filled with passion.

“Come to us.” Callie made him promise. He did. Marcus didn’t look back as he walked off, but Callie took Abby’s hand.

“Mom…” Clarke called. “We need to go.”

“Sure,” Abby said, recomposing herself, cleaning herself from the tears, before following her daughter, the only sign of pain, was the hand still holding on to Callie’s strong.

As Callie had known, Abby was amazed by the bunker, especially when she brought her to medical. Callie waited with her as she and Clarke worked on inventory, and making sure everything was up to speed, until Gaia came in to call Clarke away.

“Everyone will be here soon.”

“What if they came here to die? What if we brought them here to die away from home, out in the unknown?”

“Abby, you can’t lose hope now.”

“How can I not?”

“Because you’re Hope, Abs,” Callie said, coming closer, resting her body behind Abby’s as she looked over the shelves, throwing her arms around her, and letting her lips rest on her shoulder. “You were always hope to us.”

“How?”

“The way you made Jake’s face lift up when you walked into the room and he didn’t have to worry about exams or keeping the Ark working,” she told her – Jake’s teenage face sparkling behind her eyes, to the adult man who had love Abby with every fiber of his body. “The way you made Marcus see a better world, one made of compassion and not rules,” she continued, thinking of the bearded Marcus she had recently been introduced too. “The way you make me know I’m loved, the way you make me believe in a future,” she reminded her, turning her on her arms. “I love you, Abby.”

“Kiss me, Callie. Take me, Callie.”

Callie didn’t need to be asked twice. The place wasn’t ideal, with anyone being able to come in at any moment; she opted to not take off her clothes, only unbuttoning her pants, and dipping her fingers inside her underwear. Abby following her lead as they pulled away from the kiss.

Each had two fingers inside each other, before reaching for a heated kiss again, letting their tongues fight for dominance, as their fingers started building a rhythm, in unison, before Callie changed her pace.

Callie could feel herself close to coming, while Abby was still further away from pleasure, she sneaked her thumb on to touch her clit, and moved rougher, feeling and hearing that was getting a better reaction out of Abby.

It was the pain. Callie knew that. They needed to talk about this (at least they needed if they lived past this week), this numbness wasn’t good for Abby. Now she would do what she could do to help, and that was to offer her some relief.

Callie made sure she held off on her own orgasm until she made Abby come, whimpering against her shoulder, and she was sure there her tears in the middle of it as well. After Abby came down, Callie let herself come, feeling the orgasm hitting her hard after holding it off.

“Fuck… Abby…” she whispered, to Abby’s hair.

“Come for me,” Abby whimpered, letting her free hand roam her thigh. Both more relaxed, but with still a lot to talk about, they moved back to what they were doing before, taking inventory of the medical bay, until the rest of their people joined them.

At least some of them, Callie couldn’t help but see that some people had stayed behind, including some of the Farm Station people she had promised to protect, at least the Coopers were still safe, hopefully they would survive tomorrow.

The day continued, and at least at night, they already knew Marcus wasn’t the one fighting, and the end was no longer so imminent. Sleeping took precedent over other more primal desires.

* * *

Callie knew she needed to do this. She hadn’t been able to help Abby go out there and save everyone, but she had done what she had been asked to do, keep everyone busy as Abby and Bellamy worked out that plan, so most people wouldn’t notice something was wrong.

Now everything was different, everyone knew and everyone had been pulled out of the bedrooms she had helped pick. And Callie knew she needed to do this, even if Abby would never ask her.

Sure, Clarke and Bellamy could go get Raven alone, but Callie wanted to go – it was something she could do, keep Clarke safe, be there with her. And she would be out there already, nobody would have to throw her out – she knew she wasn’t essential.

Abby had promised her that she would be in the list, but Callie knew she wasn’t needed. Abby had reminded her that she was one of the few people who knew some _trigedasleng_ – it wasn’t enough to keep her on, she knew it wasn’t, even if Abby didn’t see it.

“Where are you going?” she heard Kara call out in the crowed square, as she was ready to leave and go up to the hatch room.

“I’ll be back. We need to get Raven Reyes.”

“What’s happening?”

“Marcus will approach the people so soon.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’re safe,” Callie promised her, resting a hand on her shoulder – she would be safe. “Abby and Marcus will look after you and Hal, I promise.”

“Thank you,” Kara said, pulling her for a hug, and Callie hugged her back.

“Keep yourself and Hal safe.”

“I will. May we meet again,” Kara told her.

“May we meet again,” Callie repeated, before going their different ways. Callie continued up the ramp to the hatch room, having found Abby already there with Clarke, saying their goodbyes, while Bellamy finished getting his suit ready on the other side of the room.

“There’s yours,” he said, pointing to some suits on the hanger, and she started changing into it – it wasn’t the easiest piece of clothing to put on, but she figured it out, but found someone else next to her when she was almost done.

“Hey, let me help,” Abby’s sweet voice asked, and Callie immediately offered her hands, so she could help with the gloves. “You don’t need to go. If you’re going for me… you don’t need to…”

“I need to go, Abs, I need to go…”

“You know the vision I had… if… Clarke… you…”

“None will come true. Clarke will be safe.”

“And you?”

“I will too… And I’ll bring back Raven and she will help with the procedure.”

“Come back, Cal, I can’t lose you… I’m not that strong.”

“Hey, no, you’re Abigail Walters Griffin, you’re the strongest person I know,” Callie said, reaching out her now gloved hand to Abby’s face, wishing she could feel her skin. “You’ll survive anything.”

“I won’t… Everything I’ve done…”

“You did what you did to survive, Abby. Don’t blame yourself. You’ll continue to do the best to protect our people.”

“You come back to me.”

“I love you, Abs. I always have and always will.” Callie couldn’t promise Abby what she wanted to hear, she couldn’t make that promise when she was lying, so she told her the truth instead.

“I love you too, Callie,” she whispered, before pulling her lips to his, on a more intimate kiss than they normally shared in public, both terrified that it was the end.

“Good going, Doc,” John commented when they pulled back.

“We should go,” Clarke muttered defeated, and Abby turned to Callie one last time, with love on her eyes, before going to hug and kiss her daughter one more time.

“May we meet again,” Abby said as she reached the door and turned to all of them, and while they all reciprocated the feeling, Abby lingered her eyes on Callie and then Clarke, before closing the door behind her.

“You okay?” Bellamy asked her, as they picked up the helmets. “You don’t need to come.”

“I do.”

“I’ll make sure Clarke is safe. And she can handle herself.”

“I need to go.” And then something clicked in his mind – Marcus and Abby, especially Marcus, had always said he was a smart boy – Aurora had been smart too, a love for History, dreams of teaching once in the past, before her station dealt her different cards.

“You’re not coming back. Why?”

“I’m not essential personnel, Bellamy. I’m not putting the burden of leaving me out on Abby. Or Marcus. I can’t do that to them… I’m making the choice for them.”

“They didn’t ask you to make the decision for them,” he told her, letting his eyes turn a bit to Clarke, almost unnoticeable if you didn’t know what to look for.

“I know. They wouldn’t,” she answered. “But it’s my life, only.”

“No, it’s not,” he said, before putting on the helmet and leaving the conversation as finished. Callie followed through with her own helmet, and then the hatch was open, and they rose to the heat of the end.

* * *

Maybe the end would come earlier was her thought as she tried to fight off the attackers. Callie was already not a good fighter, the training she had done with Indra had not added that much to what she learned from before, messing around with Marcus, Jake or Sinclair, but the suit restricted all her movements.

Their people overwhelmed their own five. Her back against the tree, feeling pressure to her old wounds, and seeing everyone taken as well, until an arrow flew by hitting the back of the person holding Emori down.

Arrows flew one after the next, until the revelation came. Echo, Roan’s second, she was here and she wanted help. Part of Callie wanted to say no, no to the woman who arrested her multiple times, the woman who almost killed Bellamy’s sister, the woman who lived in the same place Callie had seen her friends die over and over again.

But that wasn’t the right action. That was what led Charles to become the man he did, so she followed everyone’s lead and they did better. Accepting her into the fold and getting her the extra suit.

Callie and Emori helped her with it, as they figured a new ride to the Island, since their car was completely dead.

“Thank you,” Echo said and her voice just sounded different to what she was used to hear – weaker.

“The suits can be complicated to be put on,” Callie answered, as she finished pulling the zipper on her back.

“Emori, can you get the helmet?”

Emori nodded at that and went into the chest to get the helmet, but Callie could tell the younger girl was conflicted about this. She had heard her plans with John – the small bunker was for them after the possible of the real bunker had been taken from them, she was sure the two of them wouldn’t want Echo there too.

“Why are you helping me?” the girl asked, this time her voice was no longer weak, but with the strength of before, like she still had something to hold over their heads.

“I don’t know, Echo. But you asked for help.”

“What does that mean?”

“Someone asks for help, and if you can help, you do.”

“They don’t help when I ask,” she admitted, and before Callie could follow up on that, Emori came with the helmet, and she took it, fitting it into Echo’s head.

“We’re getting Harper and Monty on the radio,” Bellamy called over. “They should be driving up to Polis right now.”

“If they come for us, Bellamy, they may lose their place,” Callie pointed out.

“I know, but I have to ask.”

Callie waited as Bellamy made the call, leaving Echo with Clarke, but Bellamy was getting no answer. If they didn’t answer, this would be their end, here in the forest, cold in radiation suits, waiting for the flames to take them.

Callie wasn’t sure how she wanted to go. If she should wait for the fire, or end her life before it… she knew where to stab herself, she remembered Abby mapping the essential veins on her body when they were teenagers and she had been studying the circulatory system, paying special attention to the femoral vein. And Charles had taught everyone where to attack for the quickest results.

“Bellamy, come in. Can you read me?” They finally heard the voice of the Green boy on the other side of the radio, relief feeling them all. She had bought herself a few more hours before death came for her.

“Yes, Monty, I read you,” Bellamy answered immediately. “Where are you?”

“Two clicks outside of Polis. We’re almost there.” The kid sounded hopeful, sure that he would soon be safe – _did he even know about the lottery…_ It broke her heart to break that hope, but they didn’t have to, because he was the one asked – better than most, worried about others. “Everything okay?”

“Not exactly,” he started, taking a breath, before continuing. “Monty, I hate to ask you this, but we broke down on the way to the Island to get Raven. We need you to come reel us in.”

“We’re on our way. Tell us exactly where you are.” But before any good took over their hearts for too long, Emori coughed and started spilling blood.

Fear all across Murphy’s face, the love there was obvious as was the fear. Losing her would kill him, and they all knew that. Callie remembered their conversation in the rover, she had felt like a third-wheel there, but it had given her an inside to their relationship.

As usual with the kids, Murphy and Emori turned to Clarke in a situation of distress, as she looked around the suit, trying to figure out what could be wrong.

“The seal of her helmet’s torn.” Clarke found it.

“Can you fix it?” The desperation still clear on his voice, before turning to calmer voice to speak to Emori. “We just need tape, that’s all. It’s gonna be fine,” he promised, as you normally did to the people you loved.

“We don’t have any tools or weapons,” Clarke admitted, with the knowledge of what it was to give bad news, and what this meant.

“So we give her the extra suit then!!” Murphy yelled.

“We don’t have another suit,” Bellamy answered.

“Yes, we do!! Take it off, now!!” Murphy’s reaction was human, but it wasn’t their way. Bellamy stepped forward to stop him, while Callie immediately took a step to protect Echo.

“I saved your life!!” Echo yelled back.

“What were you gonna do if we didn’t get attacked?” he screamed back, and Callie had wondered the same, this woman wouldn’t have had qualms about killing them if it had come to that, and Murphy continued yelling about what was for sure true, but Callie didn’t move from Echo’s side.

“Give me the suit!!” he yelled again, as Bellamy held him off and tried to convince him to stop.

“Look. You cut that suit, and it saves no one.”

“I’m not letting her die,” Murphy continued pleading.

“Neither am I,” Clarke spoke up, reaching for her suit, ready to take it off.

“Stop, Clarke,” Callie intervened. “You’re not taking your suit off.”

“Callie, it’s the only solution.”

“I’ll take mine,” she said, ready to reach behind her. She was going to die in a few hours. She was not letting Clarke die – she was not, she could not.

“No, Callie. You’re not,” Clarke said, taking her helmet quickly after.

“Clarke, what are you doing?” Bellamy finally spoke.

“I have nightblood,” Clarke explained, giving the helmet to Murphy, so he could help Emori. “I’m going to be okay.”

“It’s untested nightblood,” Bellamy pointed out.

“Clarke, I can’t let you do this,” Callie continued, still intending to take her own helmet off to give it to her. “I can’t let you die.”

“I’m not,” Clarke spoke, coming to her, and taking her hands in hers. “I’m okay, Aunt Cece,” she whispered. “This will work. Mom made the blood, this will work.”

“What if it doesn’t?”

“It will.”

“If you get symptoms, I’m giving you my helmet.”

“I can’t--”

“I’m not letting you die, Clarke. You’re going back to your mother.”

“I can’t go back to her and tell her you’re dead.”

_You’ll have too._

Callie couldn’t tell her that, so instead she pulled her for a hug. Around them, Bellamy resumed his call with Monty and they continued their wait for the rover and the Green boy and Harper.

Clarke stepped away from her to go and talk with Bellamy, and with them looking at the clocks, she realized what the question was. Time was running out. They couldn’t get to Raven and make it back in time. They would have to let their friend die.

“What about them?” she heard Clarke asks. “Do we just save ourselves?” Callie wanted to say yes to that, to make sure Clarke got home, but that wasn’t fair to the others. Callie had lived a full life, she had loved and lost, she had learned new things, she had gotten Earth – she had _seen_ Earth. That was never in the plans… but those kids were kids… when she was their age, Callie had been studying communication and getting her heart broken for the first time as Abby met Jake and fell in love, with every fiber of their beings.

“Clarke, if Nightblood works, we need to get you to Polis, them, too,” Bellamy spoke. “We pull in as many people as we can before the death wave hits. If your mom can make us all Nightbloods, we only need to stay down there until it passes.” _Could that be real?_ Callie hadn’t considered this, resigned to her future, this was a possibility of the rest of her life with Abby. “We can still save everyone.”

“Just not Raven.”

Before the two of them could come to any conclusion, the rover arrived and the couple stepped out of the rover, approaching them with their eyes focused on Clarke’s uncovered head.

“Clarke, you're exposed,” Monty spoke. “Come on. Let's get you into the Rover.” Clarke argued she was fine.

“Clarke, get into the rover,” Callie spoke.

“I'll grab the extra helmet,” Harper offered. As the others started to move into the rover, Murphy leading them this time, but Callie continued waiting, sure to help Clarke into her suit, and make sure she was safe again.

“The helmets don't match,” Harper said, bringing a chest with her. “I brought the whole suit.”

“I will help her,” Callie said, at the same time as Monty spoke.

“I got this. Help the others into the Rover.”

But before Clarke could start changing, the cough started, coming with blood, black blood.

“Clarke…” Callie took her in her arms immediately. “Take my helmet.”

“No, Clarke, you just need to put on the suit,” Monty said, before whispering, “It was for Jasper. At least now it'll do some good.”

Callie saw the grief crossing the kids’ eyes. Jasper had been a good kid, but right now her focus was Clarke.

“Clarke, the suit.”

“You should put it on. Jasper would want you to,” Monty offered. “If we're still gonna make it to the island, we better--"

“We're not going to the Island,” Bellamy spoke and just like that a decision was made.

“Yes, we are.” _Or not._ But Bellamy argued back, not sure if this really meant that the nightblood wasn’t working.

“Luna got sick before she got better, so--” She had heard Abby tell the tale, how Nyko had come to their door, how they had lost the small girl Murphy had stolen medicine for, Abby had closed herself in a closet in the medical bay and cried, she didn’t know for how long she had cried, before they made the call on the radio, that was their only connection when all she wanted to do was hold her through the pain. And then, at dawn, Luna was okay, abrasions free, and Abby was on the way to some lab in an Island.

“Even if you're right, they won't let us all into the bunker if I'm still sick,” Clarke spoke. “It took days for Luna's resistance to kick in, and by that time, the death wave will already be here, and all our friends will be dead,” she gave them the truth, with the same precision her mom always did, but with less of hers or Jake’s hope. “Are you ok with that?”

“You know I'm not,” he answered. “Clarke, unless I am missing something, there is no other way for all of us to survive.”

“What if there is?”

And there. There it was. The Griffin Hope.

“You mean,” Callie started. “You mean space, going back up there.”

“Yes, we have enough fuel for one ride.”

“What’s taking so long?” Murphy asked as the others surrounded them.

“Put on the suit,” Callie ordered Clarke. “There’s one way for us to survive.”

“What?”

“Going back to space,” Bellamy said.

“There’s the algae farm in Go-Sci. The water reclamator is still there.”

“I can handle algae,” Monty said.

“There’s no fuel to come down.”

“We have five years to figure that out,” Clarke offered, as she finished with the suit, and Callie went to take the helmet and fitting it into her head.

“You think this could work?” Clarke asked, turning to Callie.

“I think it’s our best chance,” she answered. “It’s not yours and Bellamy. I would rather you went back.”

“Callie…”

“I would rather you went back to your mom, and Bellamy to his sister.”

“I would rather live,” Murphy shot back. “I don’t care if you’re ready to die, lady, but I’m not.”

“So we’re going to the Island?” Bellamy asked.

The consensus was yes – living didn’t sound that bad after all. Even if they were only running on hope for now, there was still a lot to go wrong with this plan.

* * *

“Clarke,” Callie greeted her, finding her in another one of the offices.

“Mom was working from here. I woke her up on that same couch multiple nights,” she told her. “You shouldn’t have come with us, Cece. You should me with Mom.”

“So should you,” she answered, she couldn’t imagine the pain she must be feeling about losing her. “She will have Marcus with her.”

“It’s not the same.”

“They will work towards it,” Callie spoke. “Bellamy is on the radio with Octavia right now. They went to find Abby – we should say goodbye.”

Callie wasn’t sure how to say that. Five years without the woman she loved. They barely had three months together, and now she was saying goodbye. But she had to try, she thought as they walked up to the office Bellamy was on, entering after a kick knock on the door.

“Hey, do they have her?” Clarke asked immediately as they came into the room, and looking at Bellamy’s face, Callie immediately knew something was wrong, and Clarke knew the same.

“Bellamy?” she asked, nervous, looking at her friend. He stood up at that, and Callie knew before he pronounced the words.

“The radio is dead,” he said. “I’m sorry,” he said looking at both of them, before turning his eyes solely on Clarke, as she started to break down. And Callie left them alone, as she knew they needed each other, but the moment she left the room, she started to cry as well.

Everything she wanted to say came flooding in, all the emotions and words she hadn’t known how to say before, she knew now. And now she couldn’t say. She felt the tears coming in as she looked for a place to rest, finding herself against the wall of the closest corridor. Her head on her knees as she tried to get her breathing to calm down.

“Hey,” she heard someone say. They didn’t come closer immediately, so Callie got up, cleaned her face and finally looked up.

“Come with me,” Harper told her, offering her a hand. “And I heard about the radio. And I’m sorry, but come with me.”

“What’s happening?” she asked, scared that something else awful was happening.

“I’m sorry,” Harper repeated, but Callie followed her, finding everyone, standing and looking at the screen, and in a few moments she realized what they were looking at.

Polis was burning down. The tower completely engulfed in flames as she moved forward, wanting a sign to know that the bunker was safe, that the people inside there were safe. Callie continued walking until she was next to Clarke and the screen went off.

Instantly she took Clarke’s hand, as everyone saw the truth in front of them, the silent and pain overwhelming them, until Raven spoke – Abby had always said the girl was one of the strongest people she knew.

“It’s 220 miles from Polis to the Island.”

Everything that came after reminded her of the run to make it to the ground, the pressure of time breathing down their necks, but this time it was up there they had to make it too. They had 90 minutes, and time started now.

* * *

 

The journey up had been terrifying, anything could have gone wrong.  Standing around without air had been death threatening, but her only thought right now was that it was weird being back up here, especially without Abby. But she couldn’t think about her right now, not after what she had done to Clarke.

“Callie, would you like to join us?” she was asked as she walked into the corridor that faced Earth, she had wanted to see home.

“We found this bottle here,” Bellamy offered and Callie agreed, taking the bottle.

“I needed this,” she said taking a sip and immediately recognizing what had been Beth Jaha’s favorite drink – the bottle was Thelonious’s, she knew he had one, that he never dared to open after she died. It felt wrong do drink it, but now she just didn’t want to think about it.

“We’re drinking to Clarke. She saved our lives one more time,” Raven spoke.

“I should have protected her – I had promised Abby…”

“Hey, no moping. I can’t have you and Bell with the same mood. Clarke wanted to save us, she always wanted to protect us.”

“Her father and Abby were always the same way,” she whispered. “Abby will hate me now, you know.”

“She won’t.”

“I had her child killed.”

“That was me,” Bellamy whispered.

“Clarke wouldn’t want this, she would want us to live,” Raven said. “So would Abby.”

“Bottle,” she asked, sitting on the bench with them, sharing the bottle, and looking down at Earth as it burned down and stopped being the beautiful blue and green vision she had seen all her life, to a brown and orange wasteland.


	5. Season 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Callie is Spacekru, and it is now time to go back to the Ground and face the reality there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this is over... I really can't put into words how much writing this meant to me... and that I actually finished this before the show came back :) I loved how I got to explore Callie for this long, but also other characters - if I already liked Kara Cooper, I now absolutely love her and her husband, or just writing Spacekru was something completely new for me. 
> 
> Speaking of Spacekru, this headcanon with them sleeping on the bedrooms of the Council is something I've seen around a lot on that side of the fandom, and sadly I can't remember names from that side, but I know the idea for me also came from ChancellorGriffin in the Kabby side of things :) And also of course, any familiar dialogue and lines are propriety of The 100 and the CW, just like the characters :)
> 
> Finally, I would like to thank everyone who's been reading, but especially Alison and Mel who have supported me with every chapter!!! :D Thank you so much, girls :) I couldn't have done this without your support and minds :D 
> 
> And just before I let you go, let me know what you think about me doing something for season 6... It will definitely depend on how I feel about the season, but I would like to know if there would be any interest to continue this into that new future :) Let me know here, or as the season goes on, find me on twitter (@Veridissima) or tumblr (@thestagthatlovedthewolf) :D
> 
> Really, love to you all and enjoy season 5!!! :D

Abby held tight to Marcus. She had missed him for these 41 days, she still didn’t know how to live with what he had done, but she felt safer here, in his arms, sharing a bed with him, instead of the cold quarters in medical.

Abby wasn’t sure where her relationship with Marcus stood now, and he wasn’t sure either. She knew he loved her. Abby couldn’t reciprocate that, she loved him, but he was her friend and partner. Callie was the person she was in love with.

_Callie…_

“Abby…” he asked, noticing her crying.

“If that was Clarke…”

“It could be someone else.”

“If it was Clarke, Marcus, if my daughter is alive and alone on Earth, it means that they didn’t make it up there. They didn’t go to space, Marcus.”

The words dawned on him. Slowly. Clarke had nightblood. Nobody else had… Bellamy didn’t have night blood. Or Harper… Or Callie…

“She’s gone, Marcus…” Abby whispered, crying harder into his chest. “She’s gone because she went up with my daughter to protect her. She’s dead because of me too.”

“Abby, that’s not true,” he told her, patting her head, trying to comfort her. But he felt her crying becoming stronger, and her pain and anger coming back.

“I could be with her and Jake, Marcus.”

“Abby…”

“I asked you not to save me. We all knew Callie wasn’t in the list – you were not going to open the door for her.”

“Abby, we couldn’t...”

“You couldn’t not save me, but you could let the woman I love die.”

“Abby, it’s not like that.”

“So what is it like?” she asked having now left the bed, as the tears fell freely.

“I was going to give Callie my place, Abby. I wasn’t on Clarke’s list, somehow I made it into this one, but I was saving it for Callie.”

“Marcus…”

“You love her Abby, I want you to be happy, she makes you happy.”

“Made me…” she corrected him, feeling her body completely giving in, but she let Marcus take her body into his again and bring her back to bed again.

Abby had too much grief and pain in her system. That lasted for years as she dipped into the pit of sadness, even as Marcus offered his support and she found love with him too, the pain only continued to eat Abby alive.

 

* * *

It was a strange experience to live every day with people old enough to be her own children, or at least it had been at the start. She couldn’t stop thinking of them as Clarke’s friends or Abby’s mentees when it came to Raven and Murphy.

Then years passed, and they grew up. No longer they were the children sent to the ground or the grounders in war with others, but a group of people living together and learning how to do it. The Ring was a large place, but they all had gravitated to the same side of the ship, where most of the rooms from the Council members were. Callie had immediately taken Abby’s, even if she had thought for a bit about Marcus’ – she knew that room well and she ended up just giving Bellamy some pointers about it. Raven had taken Thelonious and so on and so on.

Not that Raven was in her room this particular morning.

“I keep thinking that you maybe only come here for the tv.”

“Abby has the best football matches,” Raven answered, sitting on the couch in her underwear and a top, her bad leg up on the armrest, she had left the brace near the bed and used the crutches. That was a good thing about space – it made walking easier on Raven.

“They were Jake’s,” Callie always said, and Raven knew, but she always called them Abby’s as well.

“They are yours now.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Callie said. “We didn’t get to talk last night any particular reason you sought me out last night.”

“Nothing special. Annoyed at Murphy mostly, he was being an asshole to Emori and she’s been doing really good with training.”

“I think that’s the problem,” Callie commented, sitting down on the couch, pulling Raven’s leg onto her lap.

“What?”

“He’s jealous of Emori. I should have seen it earlier,” she muttered. “He’s started acting this way--”

“An ass.”

“Yes.”

“He always was.”

“More of an ass, after you started working with Emori, and he no longer had her for himself all day.”

“Okay, that’s immature of him. Emori wanted to help and she’s good with this stuff.”

“I know. I’ll handle Murphy.”

“What are you going to do?”

“You’ll see,” Callie answered her with a smirk. “Now you’re missing the game.”

“I’ve already seen this one,” she said. “And I should go, I was just kind of waiting for you to wake up, I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.”

“Ohhh… Sorry, but you know you could leave, right? Or wake me up?”

“I kept myself busy.”

“Looked through Jake’s things again?”

“He was very smart.”

“I know that, Raven. Anything good?”

“Not yet.”

“You could take the tablet with you. I can get a new one.”

“Nah, I like having a reason to come back. Or at least an excuse. But I should go.”

“I’ll get your clothes.”

Callie went back to the bedroom at that and brought back Raven’s clothes and brace, looking on as the young women finished getting dressed, before walking up to her and letting a peck fall on her lips.

“See you later, Cece.” Callie was still regretting the day she told the girls about the nickname during a night drinking – Raven had never let it go, and Harper still used it occasionally.

“Bye,” she said as she saw Raven walk out of her chambers and Callie went back to the room to go shower and get ready for the day.

Years had gone by and it was still weird to be living in someone else’s chambers – she had never moved (she had never married, so she had just inherited her parents’ home). But the chambers were nice, spacious, she understood how it was shock for people who had grown up like Raven or Bellamy to find these rooms that had more than a quarter.

But there was also something oddly familiar about this room, a place where she had spent afternoons and nights for more than twenty years, and it made her feel closer to Abby, and miss her too. She sometimes wondered what Abby would think of these nights spent with Raven – they weren’t a common thing and it hadn’t started immediately (after all the girl used to have Bellamy to entertain some needs, before she had decided to step away to make way for whatever thing was now bubbling between him and Echo – it had been unexpected, but he had finally started talking to her a few months ago and now things were happening, and they seemed to be good for each other – Raven thought so and she knew Bellamy the best).

Callie was sure Abby wouldn’t fault her for this thing with Raven either, five years apart was a long time. She was glad that Abby at least had Marcus down there (and hopefully Abby would still desire and love her after five years with him), and she knew Abby had always liked Raven (and that the girl had liked her – Raven had never said it, but Callie suspected it was one of the reasons that drew Raven to her), but she still wished she could talk about this with her.

She couldn’t talk, but Abby’s presence was clear as she took a shirt from her closet, blue as most of her wardrobe and started the comfortable shower of this suite – that had been something new to the kids, to all of them, used to common showers, while Echo and Emori amazed that water had been something so easy to have.

Dressed and showered, she left her bedroom, stopping by the place they had named their kitchen, close to Harper and Monty’s room (which before had belonged to Councilman Fuji), before going in search of Murphy.

He wasn’t anywhere. She had found Monty looking over his plants – it suited him rather well, he had an eye from farming and chemistry; and Bellamy, Echo and Harper training, which lately had become known has flirting zone for Bellamy and Echo (Harper rather enjoyed teasing them about it). But Callie decided to just try Emori who was following Raven’s instructions in Earth Monitoring Station.

“Sorry to interrupt. But Emori have you seen Murphy.”

“He’s an ass,” she complained. “John was in a mood, he said he was going to walk about the other side of the ship.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Callie hadn’t been on the other side of the ship for a long time now – they just didn’t need, having built a life on the other side. She walked around and followed the destruction around the halls, things had been thrown down all around.

“Murphy,” she started calling out after a while. “Murphy!! I know you’re around here!! Murphy!!”

“What do you want, Callie?”

“To come with me.”

“Why?”

“Because I say so.”

“And why should I listen to you?”

“Because I’m older and I say so.”

“It’s still not a reason.” But he didn’t argue anymore and followed her back to their side of the Ring, and only spoke then. “Where are we going?”

“We’re almost there,” Callie answered, and then pulled the door open to medical.

“Why are you here?”

“Abby saw something in you,” she said. “She wanted to train you. So why not start now?”

“And do what?”

“Read the books,” she told him, pointing to the shelves of what had been Abby’s office – Callie had long taken to her room most vestiges of her. “You can start by the basic ones on top. And then I’m sure Raven can make the computers here work, so you can test your skills.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because if you at least know something, we won’t die if one of us gets appendicitis or something.”

“You would let me operate on you?”

“My appendix is already out. But I’m sure they will trust you with your studies.”

“So the top ones?”

“Yeah, the top ones,” she answered with a smile as he pulled the book out and sat at the table.

“I’ll go look for Abby’s flashcards – she saved them on their tablet, wanting to share them with Clarke. When you’re ready come to me.”

“Okay.”

“Good, I’ll leave you to them then. See you at dinner.”

Callie left medical at that, closing the door behind her. Hopefully that problem was solved and Abby would pick up his training when they got down there – he would know the basics them. And it was a relief if something ever happened up here, to have someone with training.

Leaving him there, she went back to her post, on the other side of Earth Monitoring Station, she tried contact with the Bunker, over and over again.

* * *

“Hey, kiddo,” Callie said coming to Bellamy’s side, letting her hand rest on his arm, and look down to Earth. “Still looks no different, Bell.”

“I know… I don’t know what I wish I could see.”

“Hope.”

But before Bellamy could say anything else, Monty’s voice ran out through the ship.

“Soup’s on.”

“Come on,” she told him as she walked up to the table, stopping to see the girls fighting and Echo taking the loss, which Callie knew she wouldn’t accept (even when Harper or Bellamy kicked her ass, and left her down).

“It’s me and you next, Callie. After dinner?”

“Tomorrow, Raven, I’m not fighting with a full belly.”

“Nobody gets full from this,” John argued coming into the room.

“If Cece ends up fighting, you know you’re the one who has to handle her if she throws up,” Harper pointed out.

“Don’t fight, Callie, please.”

“Tomorrow, Cece?” Raven asked again, throwing her pleading eyes.

“Yes, tomorrow, I’ll join your training session.”

“I can lend you the daggers again,” Echo offered. “You’re getting better.”

“We’ll see.”

Callie hadn’t become any fonder of fighting in these six years, but there wasn’t much to do in space, and fighting lessons became a ritual around here, and it always made Echo feel like she was contributing the team. So after a while she said yes, and occasionally she would join them (more often than Monty did).

“Hey, the new and improved Triple-G tastes better and you know it,” Monty called their meal as they came to the table, pulling on chairs, with Callie taking her usual place next to Raven.

“Triple-G?”

“He calls this one Green’s Green Goop,” Harper filled them in.

“Better name, too.”

“And if by better, you mean doesn’t want to make you violent hurl, then, yeah, it’s an improvement,” Raven said.

“Don’t do that, Raven,” Callie warned her, slapping her arm. “Don’t mock, Monty. I would like to see you make dinner for us every night.”

“Thanks, Callie,” the boy told her with a smile. And Callie could see that John was preparing to saw something, so she just sent him a look, that said _shut up_.

“How’s Eden?” Monty continued, calling out to Bellamy.

“Still just a dot,” he answered, before pulling Emori to come eat as well.

As they sat down, another argument arose, these ones had been happening more and more each day, each day they were farther way from the five-year-mark, and nobody in the ship liked to see Raven and Bellamy argue. Those two were a team and had been their leaders since they got here, seeing them argue was very much like a punch to their core.

Callie laid her hand on Raven’s leg, trying to signal to her to calm down, to change the route, but she continued talking about the ground, until silence took the room, luckily Monty cleared up the room, distributing food to all.

“I think we can all agree that green is good.”

“Yes, he is…” Harper whispered, smiling up to Monty and kissing him. “But the stuff still sucks.”

“See even your girlfriend knows,” John said with a laugh.

“And I’m sure your girlfriend can point a lot more things you suck at,” Harper shot back.

“Hey!!” Callie called out, before they all took their bowls to their mouths. And Callie had to admit it still didn’t taste good, it never would… After just a few months of tasting real food – real meat and fruit and those sweets Abby loved above everything else – anything in the ark would taste bad, but even the bad tasting algae felt more real than the tube paste Callie had grown up eating.

“Okay. Tomorrow I’ll try again to boost the signal from the antenna,” Raven spoke up, bringing the subject to their previous conversation.

“Shotgun!!” Emori called out, winning over Monty, and high-fiving John. “Spacewalk!!”

“I know the feeling, but I need an assistant who actually listens when I tell her to come in.” It was karma that Emori was Raven’s apprentice, she had heard this complain from Sinclair so often, about the badly-behaved, but incredibly smart Reyes.

“I will do everything you say, I promise,” Emori said, with less mischief in her eyes that Raven would have saying the same. “No fun of any kind.”

“Or we could just figure out a way to get to the Ground, and we could tell them about Eden ourselves.”

“Bellamy, she worked on the fuel problem all morning,” Emori pointed out. And now Callie knew why Raven was so moody and tired, she always got so frustrated with this, she would come to her room, needing some stress relief, and there were times even sex wouldn’t help. Callie had given her multiple deep tissue massages, something she had learned from Abby from years of friendship (it was not something they had had the time to repeat during their few months romantically together), and helping John study had helped remember some key places. Raven would melt under her hands.

“Six years and seven days,” Bellamy called out, and the room erupted, with Harper calling “Time Violation”, while John called for punishment.

“Murphy is right. Dishes, latrine or cleaning, Bellamy. You choose,” Harper called out.

“I’m sorry.”

“Still need to pick,” John pointed out.

“I know, Murphy,” he said, looking at Murphy at the end of the table, before turning back to Raven. “I’m really sorry, Raven. We said we wouldn’t talk about it, and I know that you’re doing everything you can.”

Raven nodded at that and Callie squeezed her leg a bit tighter, earning her a Raven smile.

“You okay?” Callie whispered to her shoulder.

“Of course,” she said. “I know you think sitting like this is bad for my back,” she commented looking down at her reverse chair. “But that’s only for old people like you,” she finished, as usual she was using a joke to hide something that bothered her.

“You’re not calling her old when you can barely walk in the mornings.”

“John!!” Callie yelled, while Raven was getting up to go after him, but he was quicker and off the table.

“Come back here, coward!!” she yelled, running after him.

“What did Bellamy pick?” Callie asked, wanting to diffuse the situation, only having noticed him take the mop and bucket.

“Cleaning the other side of the ship,” Echo answered. “I’m going to try and help him, since I would like to go to bed tonight.”

“Don’t help too much, it’s still a punishment,” Emori called out.

“I’ll help with the dishes,” Callie offered, cleaning the table, and following Monty into the kitchen.

She and Monty had been washing up the dishes and talking about the new communication system they were upgrading, when they heard yelling from the other side – Bellamy and Echo’s voice yelling for them everyone to come to the window.

It wasn’t like a lot of exciting stuff happened in space, a few meteor showers or a shooting star, but normally Callie knew about those before hand.

But it was really something else. There was a ship across from them, they weren’t sure what to do, waiting for the others to do something first, looking on, to try and figure out their intentions.

John was arguing for them to open the lights, Callie’s first thought was the same, but Bellamy and Echo were not wrong about the dangers of giving themselves away too early. The wait was the worst part, when she felt so close to touching the ground (Abby) again.

Raven and Emori kept trying to make contact, but nothing was working.

“Radio silence,” Raven called out again, as Callie rested her hands on her shoulders. John continued insisting for them to turn on the lights, but before they could reach any conclusion, something finally happened.

“A second ship,” Harper spoke, turning all their eyes to the window.

“That must be a transport,” Raven said, before sprinting into action once again. Callie moved to where Emori and Raven were, in case they needed any help.

“Mayday, Mayday, I’m hailing the drop ship now on reentry to Earth,” she called to the mic. “We are stranded aboard the space station to your west. Please respond.”

But nothing was heard back. Not that first time, not when she tried again. But they knew something, there was another ship.

“So this is it?” Murphy asked.

“No,” Raven said, pulling her chair back. “They have a ship and a transport ship, they need fuel for that.”

“They need to answer us for us to get the fuel,” Bellamy spoke.

“We don’t. We have enough fuel to get there,” Raven told them, with a victorious smile on her face.

“We don’t know it’s the right one,” Monty spoke.

“There’s a chance it is,” Bellamy pointed out. “We can go home.”

“And if it’s not?”

“There’s a better chance to radio down, to their transport ship using their main one, right?”

“Yes,” Raven agreed with Bellamy.

“You weren’t letting John turn on the lights because you weren’t sure we could trust them.”

“I know, Emori, but if they have fuel we can just go home.”

“We should vote,” Callie offered. “This will change everything and there are risks, we need all to be on board. So who’s in favor of going down to the other ship?”

Bellamy, Raven and Callie were the first to put their hands up, slowly followed by the others, until only Echo and Monty were left, and then just Monty who felt Harper squeeze his hand, before raising his hand as well.

“So we’re going?”

“We are,” Raven spoke. “Emori, you are with me, we need to check the ship. Murphy can start cleaning up your things.”

“Everyone else go pack,” Bellamy ordered the rest of them.

“I’ll start on your things,” Callie whispered to Raven, before walking way.

Callie got into her room immediately and started separating what she wanted to take down, she didn’t have much space, so she mostly got some clothes in – those would be useful (for Abby too when they found each other).

Then she couldn’t help but look through the shelves, putting aside the Jake’s documents Raven was in the middle of reading and experimenting with – it would be hard to find the tools down there, but she would probably still want to try.

Aside on the couch ended up being a lot of Jake’s things, maybe Abby would like to see those again, and then she got a book for herself. She had been holding off giving John this book, it was in French after all it wasn’t like he could read it (neither could Abby) but the graphs and drawings in these ones were particular good. Callie browsed through the book and she could find her own writing, trying to figure out the forbidden language.

Anything else in the shelf seemed too much weight for her to take down, so she only also packed their tablet – it could be useful for them, and there would be more of Jake’s projects that Raven had been studying, and there were childhood photos of Clarke, maybe she could give Abby that, when she couldn’t bring her daughter home.

Callie moved to Raven’s room after that. She didn’t come here often, normally Raven came to hers, and it looked nothing like the way the Jaha’s had kept it, the room was so entirely Raven’s. Callie started picking up the clothes scattered around the floor, wishing they had time to wash some of these before leaving, she packed all the clothes she could find, but left the rest for Raven. And decided to look instead through was left of Thelonious and Wells in the room, maybe she could take them back to Thelonious, hopefully the bunker and his time with Abby and Marcus had helped him grieve.

He didn’t have as many memories in this room as Abby had in hers, but Callie found some metal toys Wells had loved and carried everywhere (she was sure Jake and Sinclair had made it for him) – Raven had kept them on the table as decoration.

“I don’t need to take that,” Raven said, coming into the room.

“I’m taking it to Thelonious. It was Wells’.

“Ohhh… I didn’t know.”

“I was just looking around… to see if there was something around her of his that he would want,” Callie let her know. “I’ve packed most of your clothes. And I put Jake’s things with mine – everything you’ve been reading… if you want something else.”

“That should be okay,” Raven said. “But I’ll check.” Raven continued throwing thing on her bag, while Callie checked for anything else Thelonious would like – she could only find a book, a children’s one, Wells’ favorite – she had read it to him a few times – _The Giving Tree_.

“I’m going to my room. I’ll go get my back.”

“I’m almost done. Meet you there, Cece. Leave the door open.”

In Abby’s room, she finished cleaning up her things, in one way not ready to say goodbye, but she also couldn’t be more excited for it. A room full of memories, generations old, and then news ones from the last six years.

“You okay? You said you wanted to go.”

“I do.”

“Let’s go then?”

“Jake’s things?”

“I don’t see anything else I would want.”

Callie followed her out of the room at that and asked her about the ship, Raven promised it was holding on well, and that it would make the trip.

Everyone was ready as they came to the dock, and not everyone seemed convinced, but for the first time in six years, Callie stepped into the rocket, took the same seat as before as got ready for takeoff.

* * *

Callie didn’t like that Raven was staying back, she really didn’t. She could see on her face that she was lying about the escape pod, Bellamy wouldn’t let her stay any other way – Bellamy would never let himself lose another person.

“I can stay,” Callie offered.

“You can’t stay, Callie,” she said, walking up to her, both noticing Bellamy leaving the bridge. “You’re going home to Abby.”

“I’m not leaving you here to die.”

“We’ll figure something out.”

“Raven…”

“I’m not taking a no from you,” she said, before taking her face in her hands, and kissing her, pulling away with the words. “You say ‘hi’ to Abby for me, okay?”

“Okay. I’m going to miss you.”

“We’ll see each other again, Cece.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” she told her, squeezing her hand one more time.

“One last kiss for the ride.”

“One last kiss,” Callie agreed. And this kiss was hottest than the one they shared before, ending with Raven against the closest surface, and Raven’s hand under her shirt, dangerously close to her bra… they pulled back panting, foreheads to each other, knowing this was the end of this little thing, on to a better future.

“May we meet again.”

“May we meet again, Raven. And soon.” Callie walked away at that, back to the docking bay, crossing paths with John.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m staying.”

“What?”

“Raven shouldn’t stay here alone. I’ll keep her company and make sure she’s okay.”

“Emori?”

“Emori will be okay. She’s strong,” John told her. “Tell her she can land the damn ship – she trained for this. She knows what to do, I’ve heard her talk about it enough times, that I probably know how to land.”

“I sincerely doubt that. But I know Emori can land,” she said. “We’ll come back for you.”

“You better. And tell Abby that I’m a doctor now.”

“Still a bit far away from being a doctor.”

“Half way there,” he argued. “Take care, Callie.”

“You too, John.”

Callie joined the rest at the docking bay again, all waiting for her by now, and she climbed inside – the two empty seats as clear as day.

“Let’s go,” Bellamy said. “Everyone ready?”

“Ready,” Callie agreed with everyone else, before telling Emori. “It’s time. You can do this, Emori.” The girl nodded at that and the rocket’s motor flared up.

* * *

“You know I don’t need a babysitter?” she said from her place in the rover, as she heard a knock outside.

“I told them I didn’t one either, but they don’t listen to me. I thought they would be funnier.” The girl… the girl, who knew Clarke, said, climbing into the rover and sitting next to her. “Clarke said you were funny too, the fun aunt. You would let her completely destroy your office.”

“She wasn’t that bad.”

“She said Wells stopped her from doing any worst damage.”

“Clarke was a curious child, just like her mom and dad in that.”

“They don’t want you out there, because my grandmother is inside the camp, in our home.”

“Grandmother?”

“Clarke’s mom, Abby. She also said you were her girlfriend.”

“I am… was. I don’t know…”

“You want to save her.”

“Of course, and Raven and John are there too.”

“Murphy…”

“Yes. And I’m not a child, I won’t run into camp without a plan, I’m not stupid.”

“I don’t think they think you’re stupid. They don’t want you to see bad things, like Bellamy didn’t want me to go get Clarke with him.”

“He… we didn’t want to put you in danger.”

“I get that, but I still don’t know if Clarke is okay.”

“She’s strong. She survived the end of the world.”

“I know. Abby is too, she’s the one who saved Clarke.”

“I hope Abby got to see her.”

“Clarke missed her mom a lot too,” the girl, Madi, told her, looking down at her hands. “She sometimes cried herself to sleep,” she whispered. “I wished I could do something to help her. There was nothing I could do… She had her mom’s rings… she kept them with her when she missed them.”

Callie had never known where the rings had gone after Abby took them off, but it was fitting how they had ended up with her daughter.

“How did you and Clarke meet?” Callie asked her, wanting to change the subject.

“I was scared when I first saw her,” she admitted, looking to her fingers’ again. “She made a drawing of me, and I went to her.”

“Her drawings were always beautiful.”

“She makes them a lot. There’s a few of you – you and her parents, Clarke said you were watching something called a television.”

“Yes,” she said with a laugh. “We used to all get together to watch movies at their home.”

Callie had invited the kids to the Griffin chambers often enough to watch movies with her, none of them had grown up with a tv in their rooms, and the cinema room had already been destroyed when they had gone back there.

“Clarke told me those stories too. Her favorite was--” Madi stopped immediately, and Callie heard what she had.

“Stay here,” Callie said, going to the rover door.

“No, I’m not.”

“Madi, stay here. I’m going to see who it is.”

“I… What if it’s Clarke?”

“I’ll bring her to you immediately.”

Callie climbed off the rover, and as she was out, they heard Echo’s calling whistle and Madi was right next to her, and they were running to the sound.

It was John. Emori already had her arms around him.

“Raven is still in there,” Monty informed her immediately.

“And Abby and Marcus?” she whispered.

“Murphy, what about Abby and Kane? We saw them being let off the ship.”

“You did?” John said, pulling back from Emori, but keeping her close. He knew nothing about them… they weren’t being kept with him and Raven, _was that a bad or a good thing?_ she wondered.

“That means Bellamy got the bunker open. Did he not come back?”

“What about Clarke?” Madi asked, moving forward, standing next to Callie. She suspected John knew nothing about it too, and her hand immediately drifted to the child’s shoulder for some support.

“Who’s the hobbit?” he asked. “You know what, never mind. We need to get a warning to Bellamy before they fire their missiles.”

“Missiles?”

“Yes, as in fiery death from above,” he told them. “Raven said that we need to get into radio range. Where’s the rover?”

“Bear cave. I’ll drive,” Madi offered.

“What about Abby, Marcus and Raven?” Callie asked.

“We need to warn Bellamy,” Echo spoke.

“I can--”

“We’re not leaving you behind, Callie,” Harper said. “We’ll come back for them, all of them. I promise.”

“Okay.”

Callie could believe her, they wouldn’t leave them here, they would come back. She climbed in the back of the rover, behind Madi, and Harper took her hand as they started driving, and she held on through the entire trip, holding her hand tight as John and Emori left the rover. Callie needed to stay, at least for now.

* * *

This was it. Wonkru. Callie looked around and she wasn’t sure what she was seeing. Everyone was hurt and Octavia Blake had blood on her face.

“Callie, Aunt Callie,” she heard the familiar voice of Clarke. _The girl was alive._ Callie hadn’t doubted Madi’s story but it was completely different to see her in person.

“You’re okay…” Callie said throwing her arms around the blond child, looking more like her father than before.

“I am. Madi told you.”

“She did. She also called me grandmother – not sure about the title.”

“I told her about you and mom.”

“Did you see her?”

“She and Kane took off with _Eligius_.”

“I know, we saw them. Did they take them?”

“She offered herself up,” Clarke admitted. “Things were not good down there. Kane was-- Kane was sentenced to die.”

“Why?”

“Indra won’t tell me. Nobody will.”

“I’ll talk to her. I’m glad you’re okay, Clarke, we missed you up there,” Callie told her, pulling the short hair out of her face to look at her eyes, before throwing her arms around the girl again.

“I missed you too.”

“You raised a great girl. Funny too.”

“I know. She’s everything to me.”

“You’re the same to Abby,” she reminded her. “You’re riding with us.”

“Yes, I am. We should leave.”

“You’re afraid they will find out about her blood.”

“I…”

“It’s safe with me. Let’s get into the car.”

They all got themselves inside the rover, even Bellamy – Callie hadn’t expected him to step way from Octavia any soon. And Clarke made sure to get Indra there too.

“Callie…” she said a moment when she opened her eyes.

“It’s me, Indra. I’m back,” she whispered taking her hand and dropping to the floor.

“Kane…”

“Hey, he’s okay. He and Abby are okay,” Callie comforted her, knowing that she was worried for them too.

“Try not to speak, Indra,” Clarke requested. “We’ll get you help in the bunker. Jackson will help.”

“This could have been the chance for Murphy to try out his skills,” Harper muttered, the rest of them smile, while Clarke only looked confused.

“I made him read your mother’s books.”

“Ohhh…”

“He’s good at it. Only small things up there.”

“Small things?! Raven almost sliced my arm opened,” Harper complained

“You were distracted,” Echo argued. “It’s your damn fault.”

“Bellamy was being inappropriate.”

“Hey!!” he complained from the passenger seat. And for that moment everything felt okay again, like they were safe up there, if it wasn’t for the small squeeze of Indra’s hand.

“You’re going to be okay, Indra.”

“Madi, speed up,” Clarke asked the girl and she pushed on the accelerator, taking them to Polis quickly and Callie couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Polis was destroyed, the tower completely down and rubble everywhere and so much dead, floor covered in the red, and Callie just didn’t want to imagine how that happened.

“Stick together,” Clarke warned them, before turning to Madi. “You stay with Callie.”

“But… Clarke…”

“No fighting. Bellamy, help me take Indra to the infirmary.”

Bellamy helped Clarke carry Indra into the bunker, while the rest of them were just left there, trying to figure out what happened.

“You okay,” Callie asked, touching Echo’s arm softly.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Still your home, Echo. I know you’re Ice Nation, but…”

“We never really appreciated Polis.”

“But?”

“But Azgeda are here.”

“You can go try to find someone you know.”

“You should stay with Madi, keep a low profile,” Echo answered, before moving to walk away.

“Monty,” Callie suggested.

“Yeah,” the boy said before following Echo.

“So what are we doing?” Harper asked with the three of them alone.

“We will wait for Clarke,” Callie decided jumping onto the back of the rover.

“Can you tell me about Clarke? Tell me a story.” Callie laughed but consented to the girl’s wishes and star a story from when Clarke had been around her age.

They stayed like that until Clarke and Bellamy came back.

“How is she?”

“Jackson said he can handle it. He told me to be on the look out for patients up here.”

“Where’s Echo?”

“She went looking for her people. Monty is with her,” Harper answered. “Yeah, I’ll go with you and look for them.”

“Do you know which one was your Mom’s room?” Callie asked as they were alone.

“Indra told me. I’ll take you there.”

Callie followed Clarke down to the bunker as she held on to Madi’s hand, and turned down the stairs. The bunker looked different after six years, darker and dirtier, and horrifying when she looked down at the floor was even more red than outside. She wanted to ask if Clarke knew, but stopped herself with Madi in the room.

“This was theirs,” Clarke said opening the door to a small room, but private. “I’ll leave you alone, but if something happens up there, I’m sending Madi here.”

“Of course. Thank you, Clarke.”

Up there she had been a room Abby had shared with a partner for more than 15 years, but had been cleaned for a year, here it was a place she shared for six years with Marcus and somehow it looked more like him than any other room he had ever had.

She walked across it, letting her hands roam the walls, trying to feel them here. Marcus’ book was still on the bedside table, a bookmark two thirds through the books, page 247, there were still clothes in the closet here too – leather, Abby was wearing leather and Callie tried to picture how she would look. And then she sat on the bed. The mistake that was, especially as she lay down.

The bed still smelt like them. She didn’t know the smell, but it was them. And she knew it couldn’t be true, but it still fell warm under her – they were here a few days ago and she missed them. She failed. She should have fought harder to go with Bellamy.

She missed their love, their touch, their voices and their minds. Six years was too long. And she had never been closer and further away. She held the pillow, Abby’s pillow no doubt, by the long hairs still there, and fell asleep crying, like she hadn’t let her do in a long time.

* * *

“I will go with you,” Callie offered as they stood on Bellamy’s tent and Monty finished giving her the pen drive. “No one should go alone.”

Callie knew she had to offer since she had heard Marcus words and Abby’s hope in those, there was no way she could leave them. She didn’t know why Marcus was working with that woman, maybe they were hurting Abby… Callie only knew she had to get there.

“I can handle myself, Callie,” Echo answered.

“You can’t go, Callie,” Bellamy answered.

“Why not?”

“They are there, Callie. That could put our plan at risk.”

“Why? I will help. I’ll follow the plan, I will help Echo get the drive to Raven.”

“What if they point a gun to Abby’s head?” Echo asked.

“I…”

“You know you care for us,” Harper said. “And that you wouldn’t want to hurt us, but you’ve known them for forty years – they are your family.”

“You are too,” Callie told them, honestly, but she also knew they were right, a choice like that would be hard and break her heart, but Abby had always been Abby. “I can’t go…”

“You can’t go.”

“I’ll try to protect them,” Echo promised. “For your sake, I’ll do my best for them. I’ll tell them you’re okay.”

“Please do,” she thanked her, standing up to hugging her. “Thank you, Echo. Be safe too.”

“I will.”

Harper gave one final hug to Echo and then they exited the room, leaving the couple alone.

Callie disappeared after that, and walked around camp, waiting for it to be time to run and see them leave for a better life. She ran into some people who had been from the Ark and they took their time to talk to her, but none would tell her what happened, and would stop and pull away from her the moment Octavia or one her closest confidents came by.

Callie wasn’t sure of the why, but she went to Kara Cooper, hoping for some answers – she had understood that she was close to Octavia, or _Blodreina_. She looked so different from the woman she had met – harder than before, strong, but fragile at the same time. Her hair pulled up and to the side with braids – in a grounder look – and she had a mark on her forehead, either permanent or not, she didn’t know.

“Kara,” she called, running up to her. “Kara, wait!!”

“I have things to do, places to be.”

“I just want to talk. Can I walk with you?” Kara didn’t answer to that, but didn’t stop her, only followed her, moving away from the bunker.

“What happened in the bunker, Kara? Why was there so much blood?”

“We survived the best we could.”

“And the pit?”

“We survived. I survived.”

“What do you mean by that?” Callie said, stopping her. “Why are you armed?”

“I’m _Blodreina_ ’s second.”

“You didn’t like fighting.”

“I was good at it. It saved my life in here.”

“What happened to Marcus and Abby?”

“They are traitors. _Blodreina_ should have ended them before they had a chance to leave.”

“Hey, what happened?” Callie asked again, this time strongly, pulling on her arm. “Where’s Hal?” Kara shook her off at that question and left Callie in the dust and she knew something then – Hal Cooper was dead.

Hal Cooper was dead. Just like Lincoln was dead. Leaving only pain and destruction on the hearts of the women who loved them.

Callie wondered what would have happened to her if she lost Abby, what would have happened if they had opened the bunker just a bit later, and she had lost them. But she knew anger and violence wasn’t the only result, Abby lost Jake and continued fighting to make the world a better place, the world they wanted.

She let Kara go with that and retired back to the bunker, finding what had been Abby and Marcus’ room, finding comfort on the things she found there, falling asleep on the bed that still smelled like them. Inside the room, she completely missed what was happening outside as people defected, she missed people being shot up, including Echo between them.

Next morning, the news came, like many others. Most of the deserters had been shot down, Echo made it through, but many others didn’t. Callie wanted to go up there and fight them, she knew Kara had been the one to do it – she could have stopped her.

Finding Clarke the next morning, she learned something new, Octavia had ordered it. And then she found out Octavia knew about Madi and had taken her in.

“I need to do something, Callie. I need to bring her away from Octavia.”

“I know, we’ll get her away.”

“Why did I tell her so many stories about Octavia?”

“Because she’s your friend, Clarke, and she saved our lives so many times,” Callie reminded her. “She’s just not the same person anymore. Bellamy will bring her back.”

“You sure?”

“Bellamy loves her more than anything.”

“He was heartbroken last night after finding out that--”

“He will do what’s best. I know that.”

“You trust him?”

“He’s a good kid. He won’t stop until everyone is safe.”

Clarke nodded at that, before leaving her alone once again. Callie tried to find some other people from the Ark, but nobody seemed to want to talk to her, getting away from her when she got close, even the ones she had talked with yesterday weren’t talking to her now – _were they warned against her? Was she in danger now?_ A few people still risked talking to her, but it was short and quick, and once again terrified when she brought up Abby and Marcus, and she knew she wasn’t going to get any closer to finding out what happened.

When Callie found Clarke again she was sitting at the table with Bellamy and Monty, but before she could join them, they were moving on to Indra. She pondered if she should join them, it seemed important, but she didn’t step in, but they let her join when she walked up by them.

Callie followed them across the bunker, to the farm, finding it almost dead… She had heard from Monty, but seeing it was different. But going into the next room, she found something she couldn’t be prepared for.

Worms. Worms everywhere. Inside living people. Torture.

“We need to stop this,” she spoke immediately.

“No.”

“Indra,” Clarke said.

“I need to speak to Octavia first.”

“Why?”

“She needs to know if my sister was behind this.”

“Indra, what happened down here?”

“It’s too long of a story, Callie,” she answered. “I’m calling Octavia.” She spoke to her radio and they waited until she came with Kara.

Callie kept her back to the worms, but she saw Indra going back there again, before Bellamy came to her and rested a hand on her shoulder, whispering on her ear a question, making her know it was okay to leave.

“I will stay,” she answered. “Just make sure I don’t throw up,” she pleaded, squeezing his hand.

“I promise.”

When Octavia came in, one thing was immediately true, Octavia had known about this, it hadn’t just been some trick of Kara’s mind… it had been Octavia’s idea.

“What happens when your secret weapon destroys the valley you’re fighting for?” Clarke asked them.

“I ran some tests. The worms can’t survive in a green environment for more than a few days, long enough to kill everyone they come in contact with, before we get there.”

“Are we really having this conversation? Our friends are there, people we love.”

“Acceptable loses.”

“Acceptable loses?” Callie asked. “Marcus is there, Octavia. That man would do anything to protect you, he thought of you as--”

“Callie…” Indra warned her, trying to hold her back as she moved forward.

“Let her finish, Indra. Tell me what the traitor saw of me.”

“Octavia, Raven and Murphy are in there,” Bellamy spoke before she could answer.

“Acceptable loses, big brother. How many other times have innocent lives been sacrificed? By you, or you, Wanheda?” she asked looking at Clarke. “Cooper, check on the worms.”

Kara moved to the other room at that as Octavia continued.

“I’m just trying to save my people, like you were.”

“You killed him,” Kara accused Indra, coming back to the room.

“No. You did.”

“Cooper?”

“One of the defectors survived,” she informed Octavia.

“Looks like we found something that’s not acceptable.” Kara and Octavia seemed to ignore Bellamy’s comment, as she caught up her leader on the updates on the experience.

“Octavia, you don’t want to do this.”

“Spare me your hypocrisy, Clarke. Miller told me about the man that you and your mom irradiated in Becca’s lab…”

Callie felt a chill across her spine at the words and something must have been given away.

“You didn’t know, Callie,” Kara spoke. “You always put to much faith on that woman.”

“Abby did her best to protect you and Hal when Pike--”

“Don’t you dare,” Kara said, moving past Octavia and coming close to her, almost touching her if Bellamy and Indra hadn’t stepped in between. “Don’t you dare say _her_ name in the same sentence as Hal’s!! He would be here if it wasn’t for her. She opened the door.”

“Kara, I’m so sorry,” she tried, moving forward.

“You promised me that she would protect him. But the only thing she cares about is--”

“Cooper, that’s enough,” Octavia called out. “Tell me how long your subject survived?”

“Long enough for a defector to board their ship and fly to the valley.”

“Octavia, please, don’t do this.” Bellamy called out again.

“I don’t want anything to happen to your friends, Bellamy, not even Echo—please believe that… but this is war. Once we control the Eye in the Sky, we send the worms,” she told them. “Cooper, choose one of the elite guars to deliver it. It’s time for wonkru to go home.

Octavia and Kara left at that.

“Callie, you need to go?” Indra said when they were alone.

“What?”

“Octavia and Kara will find an excuse to send you into the pit.”

“Why?”

“Because you were with Kane. Because the one thing she knows about you is that you loved them, the traitors, and Cooper is whispering in her ear, it won’t help.”

“Kara is my friend. We were together in Ice Nation. We saved each other’s lives more than once,” she reminded them and herself. “Her and her husband helped me deal with my first kill.”

“She’s not your friend anymore.”

“She stood against Pike, Indra. She was one of the few Farm People that didn’t render to Pike.”

“Callie, she’s not your friend anymore, and you need to leave this place if you want to live.”

“We’re leaving the moment the eye is down,” Bellamy spoke.

“It needs to be soon. I’m losing my word around your sister, I won’t be able to protect Callie. Octavia already suspects that I helped Kane escape.”

“We’ll leave soon. Raven will get the eye down soon. I believe in her.”

“She will,” Callie agreed with Bellamy. “I’ll leave soon.”

* * *

The plan didn’t go their way. The eye was down. But Clarke didn’t get Madi, instead the young girl joined Octavia as her second.

And instead, Clarke made another call, she decided to try and stop the cycle. Callie wasn’t sure what the words take out Octavia meant, but it didn’t sound good.

Bellamy didn’t think so, and the arguing started, until Octavia came into the room, and there was no more hiding that the eye was down. And the worms were marching.

“You’re not leaving,” Indra said, coming into the room, moments after Octavia left. “The eye is down and you did not leave.”

“Madi is Octavia’s--”

“--second, I heard,” she said. “Whatever plan you have now, do it or don’t do it, I don’t need to know now. But if you’re not all leaving, Callie still needs to go.”

“Why?” Harper asked.

“Octavia threatened to send me to the pit for helping Kane escape, she will do the same to her. And you won’t last in the ring.”

“How do I get out?”

“Octavia has taken the rover, she has guards everywhere,” Clarke spoke.

“I can get you out of the camp. On foot,” Indra offered.

“The smaller car, Clarke?” Bellamy suggested.

“Still in Arkadia. I only took the good one.”

The second car had been much smaller, and a side project of Raven’s, but supposedly it could still move.

“I can’t drive.”

“I can go with you,” Monty offered.

“No, you need to try with the farm. It’s our chance at peace.”

“Foot on the right pedal and it goes. Middle one to stop,” Bellamy told her.

“You move the stick to the next number if you’re going faster and the car shakes,” Monty added. “And you step on the left medal to be able to move the stick.”

“That won’t work…”

“It’s the best we can do, Callie.”

“What do I do with the car?”

“You go to the valley, and we will meet you there.”

“Don’t try to go in alone,” Bellamy told her. “Promise me, Callie.”

“What if--”

“No what ifs. You don’t put yourself at risk.”

“So what should I do? Just wait like a child, as a waste.”

“No. You take notice of what’s happening at camp, how it works. So when we get there, we don’t go in blank.”

“I can do that.”

“If you can, get a message to Echo that we’re coming. But don’t risk yourself in any way. So only if it’s safe.”

“It’s not safe, don’t risk that,” Clarke said.

“I’ll be careful, but I will have news for you.”

“Keep yourself safe,” Bellamy pulled her for a hug. “Don’t risk yourself for anyone. You’re important, you don’t need to give your life for them.”

“Bellamy,” she whispered to his shoulder. “The same goes for you, take care of Monty and Harper, and Clarke and Madi.”

“I will,” she said pulling back. “We will be with you soon.”

Callie left Bellamy at that and moved to say goodbye to Monty and Harper, as Indra warned her that time was running out. Her hug with Monty was quick, with her making him promise to always be himself, and then Harper threw her arms around her.

“Hey, I’ll see you soon, Harper, don’t worry.”

“I know, but be careful, Cece.”

“I will,” she said, kissing the girl’s cheek.

“I’m going with you two,” Clarke spoke.

“That’s not a good idea,” Indra said.

“Why?”

“Everyone has their eyes on you. They know you’re a threat. Callie and I can get around more easily without you.”

“Okay, let me just draw the way to the valley,” she said, grabbing a paper from the table. “Okay, take this, Callie. You follow these instructions, and you will see green – hide the car on the first cave you see.”

“I will. And I will see you soon, Clarke, I’ll keep an eye on your mom.”

“Don’t put yourself in danger, Aunt Callie.”

“I won’t.” And then Callie hugged her again, before following Indra out of the room and into the camp.

“Do you have anything?”

“A bag in Marcus’ room.”

“Everything is still inside?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll go get it. Look normal, and walk around, make sure people see you and they know you were here.”

“Okay.”

Callie tried to find some more of _skaikru_ and talk to them, but as usual they moved away, which wasn’t bad right now, since that meant she was free when Indra got back. Indra took her by the arm immediately, and they moved through the camp slowly, as to not raise suspicion.

“You follow my lead, Callie.”

“Why are you doing this?” she asked. “You’re risking your life, your relationship with Octavia. I get when you did it for Marcus, but for me?”

“You’re a friend,” she said, as it was the most obvious thing.

They were finally near the end of camp, and it was mostly dark and empty, but they could spy a guard near the border.

“Wait here.”

Callie didn’t know what Indra told him, but the man moved away immediately, and Indra came back to her.

“We have a few moments. His wife is pregnant, I’m one of the few people who knows, and he’s still scared that Octavia will find out.”

“He doesn’t want this war…”

“He does not. He would have defected if he didn’t think it would put the baby at risk.”

“Is he _Trikru_?”

“We’re all _wonkru_ now,” she said. “You know the way to Arkadia?”

“I remember most of it. I’ll get by.”

“And Clarke’s instructions?”

“With me.”

“Keep your selfsafe,” Indra said, taking her arm in her hand and pulling her for a short and quick hug.

“You too, friend.”

“Go.” Callie moved out of camp, and walking away, she could still feel Indra’s eyes on her.

* * *

The walk took days, but the scorched ground made it easier to find Arkadia. She wished she had taken longer, but nothing could have prepared her for this.

The whole world was burned and destroyed, why would Arkadia be any different…

Part of the Ark structure still stood, but nothing else, everything had been brought down. A place she had called home, even if just for a few months, she couldn’t imagine how it would feel for Abby and Marcus to see this – to see what happened to the home they built for their people.

Callie took a deep breath and cleaned up the tears threatening to fall. She climbed over everything that was broken, until she was close to something that resembled a door. She wasn’t even sure if the car survived.

Things inside the building were even worst. What was left of the bodies was still there, of course, nobody had cleaned them. Monty and Harper had spoken about that day, about how she almost went through it… how Jasper died…

She knew Bryan was in there too. The boy who she had saved. The boy that had been her friend, she thought about seeing him, but turned her back… She couldn’t go into that room… knowing that she would find even more familiar faces.

Callie walked away from the dinning hall, and tried the bay dock – Raven’s car would be to the side, next to her tools, and that’s where she walked to. The bay was empty as it had been impossible to find it at any other time. A lot of the building had fallen, a beam with most of the place attached to it was across the room.

“The car should be on the other side,” she told herself. She hadn’t yet taken the time to consider what she would do if she didn’t find it, or if it didn’t work.

“Please be here,” she pleaded climbing over the beam and letting out another pray, so she wouldn’t fall. She got across the room and found the car, it wasn’t in its best state, a few hits, but once again she prayed it worked.

As instructed, she found the key inside the sun visor, she looked at the key for a few moments, before taking the chance and turning the car on.

There was sound. Callie started moving her feet, and trying to figure out how to do this, she followed their instructions, and the car started moving, but making not so normal sounds.

“Come on, car, this can’t be that hard.” Raven had given her classes about driving the pod, people used to need a lot of school for that, not for driving. Callie moved the stick again and the car started moving a bit more easily, and then she realized something, she need to find way to get the car out of here.

She climbed out, or tried to, before realizing she hadn’t properly stopped the car, but with that safely done, she walked off and looked around the room. The side of the door on this side of the beam was too small even for this small car, so that wouldn’t do. And now way she could move the beam alone.

She tried the walls after, beating into them, she knew they were fragile enough, since light was still coming in, and she saw that the one to her right was the weaker one. Bad thing, there was a drop from the ground inside to the outside, but she didn’t think it was high enough to do any damage.

“You can survive a little jump, can’t you?” she asked the car. “Now I’m talking to cars…” she murmured after and reminded herself of Raven who so often would murmur as she looked over her experiments.

“I guess I can only find out.”

It took her more than a couple of hours to move everything from in front on the wall, and to create some space behind her to build some speed.

Callie climbed on the car, turned the key, pushed the pedal, tried the stick and the car started to move. She tried out the other pedals, to get used to it – one stopped, the other advanced, and the other was the stick one – looking at it she knew the R was to go back and after figuring out how to get it she went backwards.

Then she pushed forward. She went through these multiple times, back and forward, and then the wall broke, and the car fell on the ground – still standing and strong – and it was already dark out. She stopped the car outside, and got out, knowing that she wasn’t going to travel at night. And walked back into what was left of the station.

Callie knew where she wanted to sleep, she just needed to find their bedroom. She hadn’t been here in so long, it was hard to think that she hadn’t been here since before ALIE, she had never come home after the City of Light.

She knew to keep away from the canteen where the bodies were, what she didn’t expect was that some people were not there… And finally she tried both Abby and the Chancellor’s room, but she walked away with tears in her eyes and a foul smell in her nose. It shouldn’t be surprising that couples would look for some of the few rooms with a double bed.

Callie couldn’t stay there now. She couldn’t even stay inside. So pulling a blanket from one of the random empty rooms, she lay down outside, looking up to the sky.

She looked at the stars and wondered if she could see the Ark from here. She probably could, but she had no way of knowing, she remembered trying to figure it out in the Ice Nation with Hal and Kara, he was always sure he had found it.

Now he was gone and Kara was not okay. Thelonious had to be gone too, she hadn’t seen him and had been too afraid to ask what had happened. The world had changed.

She knew she had changed too, six years did that to a person. But the changes under the ground had seemed so much darker than the ones that happened in the sky.

It was cold outside, but it felt good to be in the ground, to see the sky, and be sure about where she is. No longer away, up there, but on the ground. And while she couldn’t find the Ark, she tried to find the constellations, and it was in that mad search, that Callie fell asleep.

The sun woke her up the next morning, blinding her eyes, but it felt good – warm. She knew she should ride off soon, but first she needed to eat something, finding some of the rations Indra had stuck on her bag – she shouldn’t have, Callie knew it would probably get her into even more trouble.

While she took small bites of the square, she looked over the map Clarke drew for her, trying to figure out which way she should take. She wanted to do this right and quick when she got into the car – she was sure she had figured it out now. So she got into the car.

She tried the paddles again, multiple times around the camp, before she felt ready to drive away. And she started, she couldn’t be sure she was driving the right way, everything looked the same, empty and destroyed. Without color.

The road drove her joy away, and then she saw it. Somehow it was even more spectacular to find it this way, to enter into the green land. Callie wanted to get out and smell the flowers, but instead drove to the nearest cave like Clarke told her – parking inside certainly wasn’t easy.

Driving on the death forest and sand, with nothing to run over had been much easier than here, but she made it. It was now night, but she was in. She was in the Valley.

Being in the Valley wasn’t enough, so she carefully made her way to camp, wanting to check how things were holding. She looked, and Callie wasn’t sure what she was seeing.

There seemed to be some kind of conflict going on, something she couldn’t really understand or see from this far way, and then from one moment the heated words turned to guns and shooting. Callie was sure she had seen something fly through the skies, and looking on its direction, she saw John.

She hoped they had a plan.

She really did. John couldn’t go around throwing rocks without reason, so Callie was ready now, sure they would come any moment.

She only saw the battle erupt in the middle of the camp, she wasn’t sure which side she should root for, just people shooting at each other, bodies falling all around them – death seemed to follow everywhere.

But nothing stopped Callie’s heart more than when she saw people, including the woman leader, who she had just seen murder multiple people, running in the direction of the house she knew Abby was staying at – she wanted to intervene, she wanted to destroy her and stop her.

“Don’t!!” she heard Raven behind her.

“They are going for Abby,” she answered, completely ignoring the fact that she had missed them coming, and that if they had seen her, probably other people could as well.

“John and Kane are going to get her,” Emori said, afraid and defeated.

“And Diyoza wouldn’t hurt Abby – they need the doctor.”

“I…” she still wasn’t sure, turning her eyes to the house again.

“Let’s go, Callie. Murphy has her,” Echo spoke, pulling her along, and stopping her from looking back one more time, stopping her from seeing McCreary and his men going into the house as well. 

* * *

It was him. Older. Tired. His hair was longer and so was his beard, but he was there. He was alive. And just like they had described him to her, in the midst of jokes.

She didn’t even know she was moving until she had her arms around his neck and was kissing him with fervor – she had missed him. His lips, his tongue, his beard… Marcus held her close until they both needed air and she pulled away, looking behind him.

She found some woman being held up by John, who had previously been helped by Marcus as well, now looking closer she could recognize her – that was their leader, the one who had kidnapped Clarke who had killed many a few hours before. But behind her, no one else. _She_ wasn’t there. Abby wasn’t there.

“Where’s Abby?”

“Callie…”

“Where’s Abby? Marcus…”

“Callie,” it was John’s voice. “We tried to get her, we did, but…”

“No. No. You promised me you would get her,” she looked around everyone she had spent the last six years with, all with broken looks on their face. “How could you leave her, Marcus?” she asked again, this time punching his chest, as he stood and didn’t fight any punch – he knew he deserved it. “WHY??” she yelled as her body was overwhelmed with tears as Echo pulled her away and she crashed onto Raven’s body.

“She’s going to be okay,” Raven whispered to her.

“She will,” the new woman agreed. “They need her. She’s their doctor – they need her to save them. And they just lost their biggest barning chip.”

“You will get her back, Cece,” Raven told her. But her body was still overthrown by hiccups and tears until she cried herself to sleep.

It wasn’t a long sleep, she woke up with screams of Abby in her mind. Opening her eyes, to find herself still in the same cave with Marcus sitting next to her and looking over the other woman.

“Who’s she?”

“Callie--”

“Who’s she?”

“Coronel Diyoza,” Marcus answered. “She’s pregnant. She kidnapped us, I think… but she-- we share a vision for the future.”

“And Abby?”

“She needed Abby – her people do.”

“These _Eligius_ people Octavia wants to go to war with.”

“ _Blodreina_ – she’s not Octavia anymore.”

“Why didn’t you get Abby?”

“I tried. Do you think I didn’t try?” he said, completely defeated, letting his head fall on his arms, and instantly she rubbed his back. “A lot has changed in these six years.”

“For me too. But I haven’t stopped loving her.”

“Me neither,” he whispered. “We’re getting her back. I’m not leaving her there. Ever.”

“I trusted you, Marcus. I don’t know if I still can.”

“Please do,” he said. “Can you look after Diyoza while I go get more wood? The fire is dying down.”

“He’ll get her back,” the woman spoke, after he left as she sat up. “He loves her more than anything. I’ve never seen anyone love anyone the way he loves her.”

“He left her there.”

“They took Abby before he arrived,” she told her, sitting up and putting her hand on her expanding belly. “Abby is a brave woman. She put herself between me and my baby and a bullet.”

“Sounds like her,” Callie answered both with her smile and completely terrified – she was now there with those people. “Who are you?”

“Kane told you,” she answered. “I should be asking the same. You were kissing Kane when he came in.”

But before she could answer, Marcus was making their way back to them carrying a pile of branches and lowering himself to feed the fire.

“I told you to lie down,” he told the woman.

“The baby is fine.”

“We don’t know that. You need a real doctor.”

“So do you,” she answered. “And so does she, by what it seems,” she said eyeing Callie.

“Diyoza…”

“I’m worried about Abby too,” Diyoza spoke. “But you said it yourself, they need a doctor.”

Marcus didn’t answer that and the lady continued, something else, a new reality was painted on Callie’s mind.

“Opioids are a bitch. Back in a service, a million years ago, I lost more men to pills than war.”

“Pills? Opioids? Marcus… what happened?”

“Callie… not now.”

“Not now, what? What’s going on with Abby?”

“Callie… I… she should be the one to tell you,” Marcus said. “Right now, we need to figure this out. So Diyoza, what about this war?” he asked her. “Are we on the right side? How does this play out?”

“High casualties. Both sides. Wonkru will suffer casualties at the border, but once they get in with their numbers advantage, and training… The Red Queen will reign over the Green Valley.”

“That’s good,” Callie spoke. Octavia wasn’t the same anymore, but she was still Bellamy’s sister, and not the man who had tortured John and Emori and Raven.

“Maybe, if she doesn’t destroy the Valley in the midst of the shooting,” Diyoza spoke. “Maybe she will forgive Abby and Kane, instead of slaughtering us all, and we can all live happily ever after.”

“No. Octavia lost her way to happily ever after a long time ago,” Marcus spoke. “How do you choose between the devil and a monster?”

“You don’t, Marcus.”

“Octavia won’t let Abby live. She will kill Diyoza and her baby too.” Callie knew that to be true, she had seen her reaction to when she arrived at the bunker – how Indra had made sure she got away.

“I understand, Marcus, but it’s not just Octavia on that side.”

“I know that. Give me a solution.”

“We need to talk to Echo.”

“They won’t listen to me,” Marcus said, that had been his initial plan, and he tried to talk to them, but they didn’t trust him enough to come up with a plan together.

“We try.”

* * *

 

“How can we trust her?” Echo asked after Marcus and Diyoza shared their plan, to go back to McCreary and trick him to use their plan, so Bellamy and _wonkru_ would be prepared. “She’s Eligius, she wants the valley for herself, for her people.”

“She wants to live, like all of us,” Marcus spoke. “We can trust her.”

“But how can I trust you?” Echo spoke. “You were working with her, with no collar – you were no prisoner.”

“I was still a prisoner. I was always being watched, always,” Marcus spoke.

“Bellamy trusted you. Bellamy spoke about you like you were the example to follow,” Echo spoke. “He stayed in your room to be closer to you, I stayed there myself many times,” she continued. “But you’re not the same man you were, like I’m not the same woman, and Bellamy is on the other side and I can’t risk it.”

“Echo,” Callie tried to speak.

“But I’m not alone. We’re spacekru, we make decisions together, so…” she looked at all of them around her.

“No,” Raven spoke. “No, we can’t trust them,” she said, and Callie couldn’t believe her words as she looked at her, and how she took her hands to her neck. “We can’t trust them… Abby, she’s not…”

“Don’t,” John spoke, as Emori touched Raven’s arm.

“What about Abby?” Callie asked.

“She--"

“Don’t tell her right now, Raven. That wasn’t Abby, you know it as well as I, that it wasn’t Abby.”

“No, Murphy, she--,” Raven started but stopped. “I say we don’t trust them.”

“Trust me then,” Callie spoke. “Trust me. I have faith in them. I know they are right, I know they want to save our people.”

“Callie,” Echo started.

“No, let me speak now, Echo,” she said. “You were there, in the bunker with me. You saw Octavia. She won’t let you live, she won’t let me live. She’s going to come for Marcus and Abby and Diyoza and her unborn child. She’s may well try to destroy the valley to get it. We can’t let that happen, it’s our duty to find the best solution.”

“And you think this is it?”

“Wonkru will have the power over Eligius, but it will be timed right, and you can take Octavia, Echo. Wonkru takes the valley while she’s powerless.”

“Bellamy--"

“Bellamy told me to run. Bellamy knew you had to run. He almost died in the pits, Echo. We’re not killing Octavia, we’re making sure we can make the right choices without her thirst for blood. So trust me, Echo.”

“Cece, you didn’t see them there,” Raven spoke. “You didn’t see how Abby was… and Kane was with them… and… I know you love her but--”

“Trust me, Raven. I’m your friend,” Callie said, standing up to come to her, kneeling to take a hand to her cheek. “Trust me, Raven, I’m not going to let you down. I don’t know what Abby did, but I need to save her. But I need to save you too.”

“I don’t trust them still. I trust you, Cal, I trust you with my life.”

“I won’t let you down,” she said, laying a soft kiss on Raven’s forehead.

“So John, Emori, Echo?”

“I’m with you,” John spoke easily and Emori stood with him.

“Echo? The choice is yours.”

“You’re sure, Callie? You’re sure they won’t betray us?”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay,” she spoke. “So I guess we’re going with your plan. Kane, Diyoza, get ready, you’re going back to the Eligius camp.”

“I’m going too,” Callie spoke.

“No, that was not part of the plan,” Marcus argued. “I’m not putting you in danger.”

“I’m not staying here anymore, I’m not in the sidelines anymore. I’m going with you.”

“Echo, it’s too dangerous for Callie to--”

“You sure you want to go, Callie,” Echo asked her, and she nodded. “Callie is going. She’ll make sure you keep your end of the agreement. And she can handle herself.”

“Come on, we should leave soon,” Callie said, helping Diyoza up, leaving Echo and Marcus to contact Bellamy together.

 This was going to work, and they would be safe soon.

* * *

The plan failed.

Diyoza had been sent to the cell with her, after she and Marcus met with McCreary. And Marcus was somewhere she didn’t know – hopefully with Abby. Diyoza had told her about the sounds from the walkie, how _wonkru_ was getting slaughtered – how their plan had obviously failed. Callie was just worried now, she lay on the cell and she knew nothing more of what was going outside.

McCreary had just come to taunt them once again, mostly Diyoza. She was relieved that he didn’t know a thing about her, that he didn’t know what Marcus and Abby meant to her, and for some reason Diyoza had kept quiet about that too.

“He’s lying, you know?”

“You don’t know that.”

“He’s playing with your mind. Just like his playing with mine, and Kane’s, and the doctor’s.”

Diyoza had been able to see Abby. Abby had been outside that door, before someone said she couldn’t come in and Diyoza would be checked outside. She promised her Abby was okay, and that next time she could pass some kind of message, but she needed to see her.

“How could you have a child with him?”

“It wasn’t planned. And I didn’t have a large group of people to choose from up in prison or the Rock. And McCreary may be a mass murder, but he’s hot, and knows what to do with what he has under his clothes,” she told her, but Callie kept her eyes closed. “We don’t all get two partners who love you, who look as good as the Doc and Kane do. I bet that beard feels good.”

“Hey!!”

“Or the doc’s small hands.”

“Shut up,” Callie said, sitting up. “You tried to kill them, you don’t get to--”

“Aren’t you there worried about _Blodreina_ when she tried to kill them? Both of them still tried to save me, and I’ve done the same for them.”

“I know… why?”

“Why what?”

“Why them?” Callie asked, lying back down, as Diyoza sat close to her, a hand on her belly.

“I don’t know… because they are brave, and they cared, maybe it was about _this_ ,” she said rubbing her belly. “But someone cared, which is more than I can say for a long time,” she admitted, with an honesty she didn’t share often. And moments after she was getting up and regretting this moment of weakness, getting up and walking across the room.

“You don’t need to run from the truth, Diyoza. And Marcus cares for you, it was obvious, not just the child. Is it okay?”

“She’s okay. Abby said the heartbeat was still normal. There are more tests she would like to do, especially due to my age, but it’s not like the ship was equipped for the possibility of a pregnancy.”

“She’ll make sure the child is okay.”

“Hope. That’s her name.”

“How far a long are you?”

“Five months, give or take,” she answered. “Do you have children?”

“Child, you were only allowed one child in the Ark.”

“Ark?”

“We grew up in a Space Station.”

“So that story was true,” she murmured. “So a child.”

“No, no child. It wasn’t for me.”

“So Clarke is not yours either. Kane said he and Abby weren’t married, I imagine Clarke is not his.”

“No, Clarke is Jake’s. Abby’s husband.”

“Ohhh… the Doc has a husband??”

“Had. Jake was a good man, don’t do this…”

“I’m not doing anything, just asking questions.”

“Why?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Yes.”

“To entertain myself.”

“Are we a game to you?”

“I’m dead the moment this child is born. You get that, don’t you?” she asked. “You know I have as much riding on this as you. More. Do you think I want McCreary to raise my child? Your and Kane’s plan was supposed to work.”

“I know. I still don’t get what went wrong…”

“He couldn’t lie convincedly enough.”

“He used to be good at it, you know,” Callie admitted. “When we were young… actually he didn’t lie often, but he didn’t tell the truth often either, even to himself.”

“He’s good showing the people the truth.”

“He is now.”

“Where were you when they were in the bunker with the crazy kid?”

“I’m sure Echo told you.”

“The spy?”

“The spy. I was with her, and the others, up in space.”

“How was space?”

“Home. Going back there was home – everything was familiar there. I stayed in Abby’s room for six years, did you know that?”

“I expect that to be a rhetorical question.” Callie send her a look at that, but she couldn’t help but crack a smile at the joke. “I expected to come home.”

“Earth.”

“Yeah. I knew everyone I had known would have been dead, but after all there was no one waiting for me when I left. But…”

“But you weren’t expecting a wasteland.”

“I wasn’t.”

“I remember stepping foot on the ground for the first time. Snow, snow everywhere.”

“That sound beautiful.”

“In less than a day, more than 10 children were dead. Murdered.”

“And somehow seeing all that death did not make you cruel, a murderer.”

“I’ve killed, Diyoza. I did not enjoy it. But I’ve killed a child to protect my people, I’ve killed more. It broke me the first time. Not the second or the third.”

“Why are you telling me that?”

“I don’t know, but we’ve all done things we regret.”

“I don’t regret the deaths I’ve caused. I went to jail for it, but I wasn’t going to stand by while my country was destroyed by some mad man.”

“I had to save my people. I had to help.”

“See, they weren’t all mistakes.”

“Maybe, but they weren’t right.”

“Of course,” she answered her, but she didn’t seem convinced, just defeated and tired, as she pulled down the top of her jumper and laid back on the seat, resting her hands on her belly.

Callie, realizing that she should just take the conversation as over, did the same, closing her eyes for a few moments, hoping she wouldn’t have any nightmares, even if the terrible feeling in her gut, like someone was stabbing or something similar, told her otherwise.

“By the way, you should call me Charmaine,” the other woman interrupted her thoughts.

“What?”

“My first name is Charmaine. You can use it.”

“Not Colonel then?”

“Opened to it in the bedroom if you want.” Callie laughed at that, hearing the lightness on her voice, she liked this woman.

“Charmaine then.”

“Yes.”

“You should rest, Charmaine. It can’t be good for the baby for you to be awake for too long.”

“I will. She’s okay, kicking still.”

“Not too bad I hope.”

“Nothing, I can’t handle, Callie. And when the Doc comes tomorrow, I’ll pretend I’m too tired and sick to move outside, at least you’ll get to see her.”

“Thank you,” she answered honestly. “I haven’t seen her in six years.”

“She has probably changed,” she warned her, her voice dropping to a worried voice. It was the pills, they probably changed Abby, and time, Marcus had looked so different with his long hair and beard, and defeated look – _would Abby look the same as him?_

“She will still be my Abby.”

“I hope you’re right,” she murmured. “Six years is a long time.”

Six years was a long time.

These six words haunted Callie’s mind. Because of course, Abby would have changed, Callie did. Callie had spacekru to care about, she had found a new family with this group of kids, she had learned to fight with a sword and fly a pod, she had walked on space, and taught the rules of football to seven unruly kids.

Callie hadn’t stopped loving her, not one moment had she stopped being in love with Abby. She loved those kids, and she had slept with Raven more than once, but Abby was still the woman she loved. Callie had lived all her life like that, she had always loved Abby, maybe that’s why none of her relationship had ever worked, there was never a chance.

Abby had fallen in love instead, she had met Jake and taken a break from their own relationship – Callie had thought it would be a passing thing like it had always been when one of them wanted to date someone else – their friendship put the benefits on hold. But Abby met Jake, and a month went by, and then six, and then she was engaged and married and had Clarke, after all Abby had fallen deeply in love with him, and had been in love with him only.

Now she had spent six years with Marcus Kane, who looked at her like she hung the sun, the man she pushed on her direction when they thought they had six months to live. Abby would have fallen in love with him, _how could she not?_ And fears of being left behind rose on her chest… Marcus had kissed her, but he didn’t love her, Abby could do the same… but she wouldn’t keep her trapped in a relationship she didn’t want.

_What if Abby didn’t love her? What if Abby left her again? Left her for another man who loved her with their entire heart, just like she did._

“Stop thinking. Sleep,” she heard Charmaine say from her side of the cell. “Things will be okay.”

“Yeah…”

Callie tried to sleep after that, the night was nightmare filled, but she got through it, waking up early in the morning. And before long they had another visit.

Callie stood up when she saw Clarke come in following the guard who had stood guard outside.

“Hey, you sit,” she barked back, but before anything else could be said, Clarke knocked the woman over the head.

“Hello, Clarke,” Charmaine said carefully.

“How’s Abby?” Callie asked at the same time.

“I need to get to McCreary and keep this ship on the ground,” she answered. “Callie, if you want to go to my mom, she’s in the gas station – it’s the best house, you’ll find it,” Clarke told her and Callie made sure to remember every word. “You should go now, before I can’t stop him, before the ship takes off.”

“Okay. But are you going to do?”

“Diyoza, here, is gonna help me,” Clarke said. “Turn around,” she ordered, and Callie couldn’t notice the handcuffs in her hands. Callie’s eyes immediately turned to Charmaine, as she realized what was happening.

“Go Callie. Give my regards to the Doc,” she told her, starting to turn around. “I’m sure she and Kane are waiting for you.”

“Clarke, look after Charmaine. Don’t let anything happen to her,” Callie said, before running off in direction of the door, hopefully she would remember the way to the exit. She hadn’t run this fast in a long time, and somehow she found the exit, maybe something to do about years living on a ship.

And while the halls of ship were empty, the same could not be said for the door, it was so close to closing, and there was no way Callie could escape through it. She would have to jump out of the moving ship. That was a worry for after, first she needed to take this people down.

Callie had spent six years training, she had lost more times than she had won, but it was her one chance. She was ready to step forward, when to her luck someone walked out, and it was only one person for her to fight.

 _Weak spots. Weak spots._ Echo had taught her. _Thumb under her fist._ Like Jake said. This was it. Callie was quick, like Emori and John were good at, she caught the man by surprise, hitting his calf strongly, the ship ready to take off, helping with him loosing his footing. He didn’t fall, but Callie punched him on the face immediately after, hitting his jaw, ignoring the way her hand hurt, as she pulled back and hit him on her stomach.

The ship stopped moving in that moment. That would be one less problem, but she still needed to win this fight.

 One punch from the man and she was bleeding, she could feel the blood in her mouth. But she couldn’t stop. Callie kicked his legs again, John had the tendency to always use this when fighting Raven, enough kicks the man fell, and she stepped on his face and stomach – enough not to move, and she pulled the lever and took off running.

She was going to find Abby.

* * *

Callie ran through the camp, trying to follow Clarke’s instructions, and then it was just like she knew, and right now she needed Abby and Marcus. Callie knew that the battle would start, whatever Clarke was trying to do would have consequences, and finally she found the door, stopping in front of it, taking a deep breath, and pushing the door opened.

Callie couldn’t have prepared for what she came across. A dead body on the floor, fried alive, the collars, marks that could have been on Raven or John or Emori’s neck.

“Good, help. I need your help,” her voice pleaded, she could still hear the tears, through her strength.

“Abby, I’m not…”

“Callie,” she whispered, more tears threatening to fall, looking behind her, her eyes focusing on Callie’s, before she caught a look at who was on the table, Marcus.

“What--”

“I need you… I know you don’t know how, but I need you.”

“What do you need?”

Callie asked coming closer to her, resting her hands on her shoulders, before moving across the table.

“Please, I need you to help with the blood there’s too much, and I can’t see…”

“Okay…” Callie nodded. “Do you have anything clean?” she said noticing that every cloth on the table was too bloody.

“Check the cupboards. Near the smaller bed.”

“Madi’s?” she commented as she moved to get some clean towels and linens, before coming back, and trying to use it to suck up as much blood as she could.

Callie looked at Abby as she worked, focused on the task at hand. Her face looked older tired, but at the same time, she still looked the same she did when they were thirteen, trying to figure out a specific hard math problem.

“I need light, Callie. Move the towel.” Callie pulled back at that. “If there’s too much blood, I’ll need it again.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “What happened?”

“You know he told me he saw you. Raven told me you were alive. But I still think you’re a ghost coming to haunt me. Why would be here now? Of all the moments, why would you be here now?”

“Abby…”

“I used to see you. If I took just enough I would see you and imagine your touch. But now I’m clean, but I keep being tested, like I shouldn’t be…”

“Clean?” But before Abby could say anything else, the door opened.

“Clarke, I need your help too,” was Abby’s immediate answer, but Callie could already see who it was.

“Abby,” Callie spoke, trying to warn her.

“Don’t worry. I’m not here to kill you, Abby. Either of you,” she said eyeing Callie. “You both left without saying goodbye.”

Abby turned at that, her small body being the only thing between Octavia and Marcus, but she was ready to fight, Callie knew it. Callie wondered what she should do next, for now she continued holding the towel to his bleed.

“I’m sorry about Kane, but it’s time to go,” Octavia warned them, and Callie could finally hear the siren from outside, the countdown.

“No, I won’t leave him.”

“Abby,” Callie called, as Octavia moved closer to Abby’s face.

“Listen to your lover, Abby,” Octavia continued. “We need to go. And you have her back now, and Kane was nothing but a replacement.”

“He’s not a replacement. And I’m not leaving him.”

“We’ve been here before,” Octavia said, stepping closer. “This is not a choice.”

“Yes, it is.”

“You’re choosing to die, to let your lover die here with you.”

“Callie will go with you,” Abby answered. “I’m not leaving, Marcus.”

“I’m not leaving without both of them,” Callie spoke loud and clear – she was not abandoning Abby not again, not ever.

“This is not a choice!!” Octavia spoke louder now, getting madder, seeming ready to strike.

“Everything is a choice,” Callie reminded her.

“You don’t speak,” she yelled at her. “You don’t know how it’s like,” she said. “But Abby, here, thinks it’s okay for me to be the monster, but not her. Is that right?” Closer to Abby’s safe.

“Don’t touch her!!”

“Eat or Die!!” she yelled, not seeming to have heard a word out of Callie’s mouth. “That was you too. That was her – she was there with me,” she yelled at Callie, and she couldn’t help but see the pain on the girl’s face, completely changed by what happened to her underground.

“Yes, it was,” Abby spoke, her voice calmed and collected. “You’re right. And he knew. So strike me down or get the hell out, because I’m saving the man that I love,” the last part came out with determination and strength.

“And do you think she still will?” Octavia asked, looking at Callie, as Abby had turned her back to her and was working on Marcus again. “You should have seen the way her face fell…”

“It didn’t,” Callie argued. “And I will love Abby, always, so if you’re just going to stand there and continue threatening us, you better just leave…”

“I have a better idea,” Octavia suggested, taking a breath, before continuing him. “We save him.”

Callie saw Abby freeze, her hands still inside Marcus, not sure what to think about Octavia’s offer.

“What do you need?” she asked, but Abby was still not answering. “Abby, we need to leave, we need to evacuate this valley.”

“Hey, Abby,” Callie called, resting her hand on hers, making her look up. “What do we do so we can take Marcus with us?”

“Try to stop the bleeding. Keep him stable.”

“Okay,” Callie nodded. “Where do we start?”

“I need a smaller piece of cloth to put on his wound.”

“Okay,” Callie at that got a new towel and walked up to Octavia. “I need you to cut this – smooth cut.”

Octavia didn’t argue only pulling out her sword, and cutting it down the line, leaving Callie with a smaller enough piece of cloth for Abby to use.

“I’m going to go get someone to help carry Kane.”

They were alone again. Callie took a hand to her back, standing next to her, following her instructions, hooking him to everything he needed to be hooked. And Marcus was ready when Octavia came back with some guy and they moved him to a stretcher. Abby followed them, holding the blood bag, but her other hand reached for Callie’s.

“You’re with me now.”

“Always, Abs.”

“I love you, Cal.”

“I know.” Right now wasn’t the moment to kiss her, but she squeezed her hand, knowing that Abby was going to save Marcus, they were going to deal with this ringing sound, and then they would figure out what to do next and what this was.

* * *

Callie hadn’t known what to do, but she sat in the operation room, as Abby and Clarke worked on Marcus, with Jackson joining them when he finished with John. Callie observed Abby with sharp eyes, just like her daughter and apprentice did.

Abby was focused and sure, she had her doctor face on – the concentration so natural to her, a strength that had defined her their all life. But at the same time, Abby was on the verge of breaking, knowing this was the man she loved.

“Abby, I don’t think there’s more you can do,” Clarke spoke.

“I’m not letting him die.”

“I know, but you’ve stitched it up. He needs time now.”

“I can’t let him…”

“There’s enough to put him in a drug induced coma,” Jackson suggested.

“For how long?”

“Not long, but maybe enough to figure out our next step.”

“Mom,” Clarke called. “What does this mean? How does this help?”

“It gives time for some of his organs to regenerate alone, and it will give away to find out how I can operate next.”

“And it’s safe.”

“For now,” Abby said. “You should go, Clarke, see the others. Check on Madi.”

“You sure?”

“Jackson and I can handle this.”

Callie observed Clarke leaving the room, after sending her a smile, and then turned her attention to Abby and Jackson administering something into his blood. And Callie saw the signals on his machines change, before he left the room.

It was less than a minute, before Abby crumbled on her feet. Her knees giving up and throwing her body on top of Marcus. Callie was up in seconds, pulling a chair with her, and then helping Abby to sit down.

Callie let her hands hover on her shoulders and neck, as Abby still had her face hidden on Marcus’ chest.

“This is my fault, all my fault…” she whispered.

“It’s not. You saved his life.”

“You don’t know what I did.”

“I don’t need to know, to promise you that I’m here,” Callie said, lowering herself to be on the same height as Abby. “He’s going to be okay, Marcus is going to be okay,” Callie promised, pushing Abby’s hair away from her face, and Abby fell into her hand.

“You don’t know that. We don’t know that.”

“I believe in it. Because many years ago, someone told me to have hope.”

“Hope… I miss that, I miss believing that there will be something better.”

“There will be.”

“I was starting to believe that, and then Marcus got attacked and the last living place on Earth was blown up.”

“The Ark was supposed to die. An AI took over our lives. The entire world burned down, Abby,” she said. “And we’re still here.”

“And we’re still here,” Abby repeated, reaching out to touch Marcus’ forehead, before taking her hand as well.

“Do you want a list of everything Marcus has survived? He’s a fool who gets himself in trouble too often.”

Abby honestly laughed at that.

“He is, and he made it.”

“And he will again,” Callie responded, reaching out to touch him as well. “I was so mad when I saw he left you behind.”

“There was no time. They took me away. Diyoza was too busy holding them off to help.”

“She said you protected her, with a glint in her eyes.”

“She’s pregnant.”

“I know. Hope.”

“I should go check on her,” Abby said, getting up from the chair.

“Hey,” Callie called, holding her as she stood and lost her footing. “She can wait a few more moments.”

“I should--"

 “You should rest.”

“I can’t, I have to--"

“Mom!!” Clarke called, barging into the room. “Mom, would putting Kane in cryo help? Instead of the coma.”

“Yes!!” Abby exclaimed, pulling away from Callie “Yes, that would work, Clarke. That’s a great idea.”

“It was Bellamy’s, actually.”

“A good idea still,” she said, looking back to Marcus again.

“Also, Callie, Bellamy wanted me to get you. We’re meeting in the bridge, he wants you there.” Callie looked behind her at Abby. “He only asked for you.”

“I should stay with your mom.”

“No, don’t, you should go,” Abby said. “After all, I need to talk with Jackson and then check on Diyoza.”

“Abby…”

“Go,” Abby whispered, taking her face on her hands, and pecking a soft kiss on her lips, small but the first they shared in six years.

Callie turned to go at that, and Abby pulled her hand back.

“Come back, okay?”

“Always, Abs.”

“You didn’t. Last time.”

“I promise, Abby, I will come back,” Callie promised her. “Or I can stay.”

“No, no, you go,” she said. “Just come back.”

“It’s a ship, nowhere else to go,” Callie reminded her.

“Just be safe.”

“I will,” Callie promised her, she knew she was coming back to her, and with another sweet peck, that made her want to kiss Abby for real even more, she left, following Clarke out the room.

* * *

The meeting had gone well, no arguing, which was a miracle, and she had liked Shaw putting his hand up. And it turned out Marcus wasn’t the only one going into cryo, all of them were.

They had all changed into some more comfortable clothes, Callie was pretty sure she had never worn something this warm and clean. Anything that had resembled sweats and a top on the Ark had been full of holes. And everyone was moving near the pods, saying goodbye and getting ready.

Abby was with Marcus, he was the first pod. He would be the first to go into cryo.

“Everyone has said goodbye,” Abby said, looking down at the pod, as she came to stand next to her.

“He will be here in ten years,” Callie said. “You will know what to do.

“I hope you’re right. I can’t lose him.”

“You won’t,” she said. “Have you said goodbye?”

“Not yet…”

“Can I go first?”

“Sure,” Abby said giving her space to step forward.

“Hey,” she said, reaching for his cheek. “You need to come back, you know, you can’t leave Abby alone now. I need help to deal with her stubborn ass.”

“Hey,” Abby complained with a giggle and a light kick to her leg.

“See what I mean,” Callie said with a laugh, before turning serious. “She fell in love with you, Marcus, she did. And you can’t do this to her again. She can’t lose someone else she loves.”

Marcus stayed unmoving, and she couldn’t help but scratch his beard and long hair – it was so long now. Everything about him was wild, raw and human, so different from the boy and man she had known.

“You can’t leave me either, Marcus. I want to get to know this side of you. I want to hear you breathe and laugh. I want to sit on the ground with you. I want you with me, with us.”

Callie finished at that, lowering herself to lay a soft kiss on his lips, seeing her tears falling on his skin when she pulled back. Callie looked back at Abby who also had tears on her eyes now, and then she whispered.

“He reads poetry now,” Abby told her. “You should listen to it.”

“Pick a poem for him to read to me when he wakes up.”

“I already know the one,” she whispered. “He read it to me on your birthday. The first birthday. It was before he and I really… you know…”

“Before you were in love with him.”

“Yeah, we were just friends, for a while.”

“I’m not mad that you and Marcus--”

“I know, I didn’t think you would,” she said. “We read that poem every year on your birthday.”

“I cried on your birthday. They always tried to cheer me up – Raven offered me spacewalks.”

“Fun?”

“A lot. I learned to fight too.”

“We have a lot to catch up then.”

“A lifetime,” Callie said. “But right now, you should say goodbye to him.”

“I know. I’m just afraid.” But Callie let her through, and stepped away, as Abby whispered to Marcus, their foreheads touching as her hand held onto his hair. Callie could only make out the last three words, “I love you”, before Abby looked back at her and the panel next to her.

“Can you do it?” she asked eyeing the panel, with her hand still on top of Marcus head, where his hair met his forehead.

“You ready?”

Abby kneeled for another kiss, and then nodded at her. Callie pushed the button, and they saw his pod close and go into the wall. He was asleep now.

“We should get ready,” Abby said, cleaning her tears. “I need to find Clarke.”

“You’re staying here?”

“Yes, this one,” she said, touching the pod on top of Marcus. “Stay close.”

“I will call dibs on the one next to you,” Callie walking across the pods, to write her name on the screen, Abby still behind her, her chin on her shoulder.

“Thank you,” she said, kissing her neck.

“Together,” Callie told her finishing with her name.

“Don’t go to sleep before--”

“I won’t. Go find Clarke.”

Abby left her to join her daughter and Madi, Callie walked the hall as well, most people were getting into their cryo pods now. She could see Bellamy between Echo’s legs kissing her, softly and caring, like she would often find them in the Ring.

Callie smiled at that. Emori and John were arguing as usual, between kisses and laughs, none seemed ready to say goodbye.

“Cece,” Raven called out, coming her way, supposedly after helping Shaw into cryo.

“Raven, ready to sleep?”

“A nap should feel good about now,” she answered. “You sure you don’t want to sleep in our corner. I have an empty pod next to me.”

“I have a place,” Callie spoke. “I’m staying next to Abby.”

“Abby, of course,” Raven answered, looking away.

“Hey, Raven,” she said reaching for her cheek. “I don’t know what Abby did, but…”

“You love her, no matter what. I know that, I’ve always known…”

“Raven…”

“Just leave me alone. Go back to her. Just make sure she doesn’t hurt you too.”

“Raven, what did Abby do?”

“I promised Murphy I wouldn’t say. Let you find out by yourself,” Raven turned back at that, but Callie held to her wrist and pulled her for a hug.

“I love you, Raven. Sleep well.”

“Yeah,” she said hugging back. “I’ll see you in ten years, Cece.”

“Ten years,” Callie said, pulling back, and receiving a nod from Raven. “Do you want any help?”

“Nah, I can handle it. See you on the other side.” Raven walked away at that, but Callie stood there watching her for a bit, as the girl set down, pulled off her brace, and climbed in.

“It’s not a bad sleep,” she heard a voice call from awhile back now. Around her, more and more people were inside their pods. “And really no time will have passed, I don’t see this need for all the heartfelt goodbyes,” Charmaine spoke as she laid on the pod.

“How’s the baby? Abby said she was going to check,” Callie asked coming closer.

“Hope is good. I got to hear her heartbeat. Only three more months pregnant.”

“And ten years.”

“This baby is going to be old, just a bit over a hundred years.”

“Glad I’m not you then,” Callie said with a laugh.

“Yeah, yeah,” she murmured. “And since you’re here, can you close me off?”

“Sure. You ready?”

“It’s not hard. Come on, Cal.”

“Cal, huh?” she said with smile. “See you soon, then,” she said clicking on the right buttons. “Charm,” she finished, as the cryo closed and she touched the closed lid.

Callie looked back at the almost empty hall now, seeing Abby near hers, looking down at Marcus again. Callie made her way back to her, nodding to Bellamy and Clarke on the way.

“You, ready?” Abby asked her.

“As much as I can be,” Callie said, stopping in front of her. “You?”

“I think so.”

“You should have your hair down,” Callie told her, she had undone her own braids as well – it seemed that centuries had passed since Emori had done them. “Come here.”

Abby stood close to her, probably closer than they needed to be, her warmth breath on her face, as she started to undo the braid, running her hands through the strands of hair, trying to get some of the knots.

“I should have gotten a brush,” Callie said.

“It’s okay. This feels nice,” Abby said. “I haven’t had the time to deal with my hair, or the patience.”

“We’ll do something when we wake up. Echo and Emori taught me some grounder hairdos.”

“We’ll try that,” Abby pleaded, as Callie ran her fingers through her long hair again, catching the grey strand. “It’s greying.”

“Mine too,” she said with a laugh. “I painted it a few times. I was noticing how long it is – it’s the longer I’ve seen.”

“Yours is short,” Abby said, taking a hand to her hair, pushing it behind her ear. And then she grabbed her head and pulled her in – it was their first kiss. Callie immediately responded and held her face close to her, neither wanted to let go of the kiss. But they pulled back, still touching each other’s faces, the smile between them present.

“I like your new hair,” Abby said, touching the tips of her hair, who barely touched her shoulder. “I love you, Callie. Always did, always will.”

“I love you too, Abs. Now let’s get you to sleep.” Callie helped her to the pod above Marcus, as she cleared her hair, before lying down, turning on her side to look at her again.

“Ten years,” Abby nodded to her. “I wake you up if I wake up first. You do the same?”

“Of course.” And with a last kiss, Callie closed off her pod. She waited a few moments, before turning her back again, looking at her own pod.

It was also on top and the bottom one was already occupied. She was ready to climb up when she heard Monty and Harper calling for her and telling her they would help her up.

“Hi. I thought you were already down.”

“Not yet,” Harper answered.

“But you have a place.”

“Yes,” they said, looking back to the two open and empty pods somehow in between John’s and Bellamy’s. Almost everyone was in cryo already, some grounders still hugging and saying goodbye, but they couldn’t be more than twenty.

Before Callie could say anything next, Harper threw her arms around her, and she held her back, for a long time… Harper was not letting go.

“Hey. Harper, it will be like no time has passed.”

“Right,” she whispered, pulling back. “I will still miss you. And I missed you while you were gone.”

“I missed you too,” she said. “You too, Monty.”

Harper held her again, tightly, before pulling back.

“May we meet again, Cece,” Harper told her, before stepping back, cleaning the tears off her eyes, as Monty helped her up the cryo.

“See you soon, Monty. And make sure, Harper is okay.”

“I will,” he said. “Thanks for everything.”

“You do well on your own.”

“I hope so,” he whispered, close to her board, waiting for her confirmation to close the pod.

Callie turned her face on more time, spying Monty and Harper, and Abby’s pod right on top of Marcus, and then closed her eyes, and Monty closed the pod.

She felt the cold, colder than Ice Nation, and before she knew it, she was frozen and asleep.


End file.
